Bssssssa 


MASTER'S  METHOD 
OF  WINNING  MEN 


DWIGHT    MALLORY    PRATT 


OCT  28  1925 


BV  3790  .P8  1922 
Pratt,  Dwight  M.  1852-1922 
The  Master's  method  of 
winning  men 


),^\  Br  rnincSf^ 


OCT  28  ^.9?5 

Master's  Method    of 
Winning  Men 


By      -y 
DWIGHT  MALLORY  l^RATT,  D.D. 

Author  of  "A  Decade  of  Christian  Endeavor,"  etc. 


Introduction  by 
FREDERICK  L.  FAGLEY,  D.D. 

Executive  Secretary  of  the  Commission  on  Evangelism  of  the 
National  Council  of  Congregational  Churches 


New  York  Chicago 

Fleming   H.    Revell   Company 

London        and        Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANTT 


New    York:  158    Fifth    Avenue 

Chicago:    17  North  Wabash  Ave. 

London:    21  Paternoster    Square 

Edinburgh:  75     Princes     Street 


TO  MY  WIFE 
My  Best  Helper  in  the  Master's  Work 


INTRODUCTION 

ABOUT  the  first  of  April,  1922,  Dr.  Pratt 
sent  me  this  manuscript  to  read  over  and 
to  place  with  a  publisher.  At  that  time  he 
was  kind  enough  to  ask  me  to  write  a  brief  intro- 
duction, which  I  was  very  glad  to  do.  Within  two 
weeks  a  message  from  Mrs.  Pratt  brought  the  word 
of  his  passing  into  the  larger  life.  In  the  light  of 
this  one  does  not  care  to  write  an  introduction  of  the 
usual  sort. 

Many  men  and  women  will  read  these  chapters 
and  be  greatly  strengthened  in  the  inner  life  by  his 
message;  others  who  have  not  come  into  an  experi- 
ence of  understanding  will  be  encouraged  to  trust 
and  venture  forth  in  the  quest  of  spiritual  reality. 

To  those  who  knew  Dr.  Pratt  intimately,  these 
words  will  be  a  priceless  heritage,  summing  up  his 
experience  with  God  and  man,  rich  in  personal  testi- 
mony and  vital  with  the  Spirit's  power. 

Dr.  Pratt  worked  on  this  book  for  a  long  time. 
Ten  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  pastor  in  Cincinnati, 
he  told  me  of  his  purpose,  and  we  discussed  fre- 
quently the  plan  and  scope  of  his  outline.  I  well 
remember  one  day  in  particular,  as  we  sat  in  his 
library  surrounded  by  choice  books.  Dr.  Pratt  read 
to  me  during  the  afternoon  a  manuscript  upon  the 
spiritual  life,   which  I   recognize   as   two  of  these 

5 


«  INTRODUCTION 

chapters.  How  his  face  glowed  with  anticipation 
and  his  voice  thrilled  with  joy  as  he  thought  and 
spoke  of  his  ambition  to  be  of  help  to  true  seekers 
after  spiritual  knowledge  through  personal  experi- 
ence. 

This  is  his  message — the  message  the  world  needs 
and  longs  for,  and  seeks  until  it  be  found. 

Frederick  L.  Fagley. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


FOREWORD 

THE  mission  of  the  Church,  and  of  all  Chris- 
tian believers  whether  considered  indi- 
vidually or  collectively,  is  to  win  the  world 
to  God  through  the  love  and  grace  and  power  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Every  agency  that  represents  the 
spirit  and  genius  of  Christianity  should  be  employed 
to  this  end:  music,  art,  literature,  architecture,  and 
every  other  product  and  invention  of  human  thought. 
Any  agency  should  be  utilized  that  informs  the  mind, 
appeals  to  the  heart,  influences  the  judgment,  moves 
the  will,  or  commands  and  renews  the  spirit,  through 
any  of  the  five  avenues  to  the  soul:  sight,  hearing, 
feeling,  taste,  and  the  sense  of  fragrance.  Through 
any  of  these  channels  the  sense  of  beauty,  goodness 
and  truth  may  gain  access  to  man's  innermost  being. 

The  three  methods,  however,  that  have  been  most 
blessed  of  God  to  the  saving  of  men,  from  the  dawn 
of  Christianity  to  the  present  hour,  are  personal  testi- 
mony and  appeal,  public  preaching  and  the  services  of 
worship  associated  with  it,  and  the  written  and  spoken 
Word  of  God  as  recorded  in  the  Bible.  These  have 
been  effective  in  the  order  given.  The  first  disciples 
were  won  by  the  personal  influence  of  Jesus;  then 
these,  whether  the  original  twelve,  or  later  the  seventy, 
or  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  after  the  resurrection, 
were  sent  out,  often  two  by  two,  to  tell  the  good 

7 


8  FOREWORD 

tidings  of  God's  love  and  saving  grace  to  all  whom 
they  might  meet  in  the  country  or  villages  along  the 
way.  The  first  classic  instance  of  the  good  results 
that  flow  from  this  method  is  given  in  the  first  chap- 
ter of  St.  John's  gospel.  Jesus  convinced  John,  his 
forerunner  and  prophet,  John  won  Andrew,  Andrew 
brought  his  brother  Simon,  Simon  evidently  in- 
formed his  fellow-townsman  Philip,  Philip  found 
Nathaniel,  and  Nathaniel  brought  some  one  else  to 
confess  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God,  the  King  of 
Israel,  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

This  method  of  personal  communication  was  the 
one  most  effective  in  winning  the  Roman  empire,  in 
three  centuries  to  an  espousal  of  Christianity  as  the 
state  religion.  The  beauteous  lives  of  the  early 
Christians  and  their  ceaseless  testimony  in  words, 
whether  as  slaves  in  Caesar's  household  or  in  other 
realms  of  civic  and  social  life,  at  last  accompHshed 
their  transforming  work,  as  light  penetrates  dark- 
ness, or  as  leaven  sends  its  contagion  through  the 
entire  mass.  This  personal  witness,  by  word  and 
deed,  by  character  and  conduct,  to  the  saving  power 
of  the  risen  Christ,  was  absolutely  irresistible.  It 
won  a  wondering  empire  from  bitterest  antagonism, 
deadliest  hostility  and  most  inhuman  persecution  to 
final  surrender  and  allegiance. 

Public  preaching  is  only  another  emphasized  form 
of  personal  instruction  and  appeal.  Jesus  employed 
it  constantly.  His  sermon  on  the  mount  is  the  most 
marvelous  exposition  of  truth  that  ever  fell  from 
human  lips.  Later  on  Peter's  impassioned  sermon 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost  resulted  in  the  conversion  of 


FOREWORD  9 

thousands  and  in  the  establishment  of  the  Christian 
Church.  From  that  day  to  this  the  glowing  sermons 
of  prophets,  apostles  and  eloquent  preachers  have 
been  one  of  the  chief  glories  and  most  effective 
agencies  of  our  religion. 

Finally  the  written  word.  The  Bible  of  itself  has 
converted  entire  nations.  The  historian  Green  in 
accounting  for  the  great  moral  change  that  came 
over  England  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  says : 
"  England  became  the  people  of  a  book,  and  that 
book  was  the  Bible.  *  *  *  ^]^q  whole  temper  of 
the  nation  was  changed.  A  new  conception  of  life 
and  of  man  superseded  the  old.  A  new  moral  and 
religious  impulse  spread  through  every  class.  *  *  * 
The  whole  nation  became,  in  fact,  a  Church." 

The  same  can  be  said  of  Puritan  New  England. 
Its  devotion  to  religion,  its  nobility  of  character,  the 
exceptional  quality  of  its  spirit,  its  constructive  power 
in  the  life  of  America,  are  to  be  traced  to  the  Puri- 
tan's knowledge  of  and  passionate  love  for  the  Bible. 

The  first  of  these  three  methods  is  the  one  upon 
which  this  little  volume  seeks  to  lay  special  emphasis. 
It  is  usually  defined  by  the  now  well-worn  term 
"  personal  evangelism." 

D.  M.  P. 


Contents 

PART  I 
THE  CHURCH'S  SUPREME  TASK 

I.  The  Church  Discovering  Its  Need  .  13 

11.  The  Master's  Method  .       .       .       .  ai 

III.  Qualifications 28 

IV.  The  Difficulties  of  the  Task    .       .  34 

V.    The  Partnership  of  Personal  Testi- 
mony AND  Public  Preaching        .     39 

VI.  The  Opportunities  of  the  Work  .     47 

VII.  The  Psychology  of  Soul  Winning  .     50 

VIII.  The  Skill  of  a  Great  Evangelist  .     54 

IX.  Soul  Winning  as  an  Art      .       .  -59 

X.  The  Evangelism  op  the  Apostles  .    65 

PART  II 
A  SPIRITUAL  CLINIC 

XI.    The  Miracle  of  Regeneration  .       .     70 

XII.    Storming  the  Citadel  of  the  Will  .     75 

XIII.    The  Battle  of  the  Soul      .       .       .    8i 
11 


12  CONTENTS 

XIV.    The  Evolution  of  a  Normal  Chris- 
tian Experience     ....     85 

XV.    The  Conversion  of  a  Moralist  .       .    89 

XVI.    A  False  and  Obstructive  Humility  .     92 

XVII.    Honest  Difficulty  with  a  Creed      .     96 

PART  III 

AN  ESTIMATE  OF  VALUES 

XVIII.    The  Rewards  of  Personal  Evan- 
gelism         102 

XIX.    Conclusions 106 

XX.    A  Final  Word  OF  Testimony       .       .118 


PART  I 
THE  CHURCHES  SUPREME  TASK 

I 

THE  CHURCH  DISCOVERING  ITS  NEED 

MANY  signs  indicate  that  the  world  is  on  the 
threshold  of  a  great  spiritual  awakening. 
Only  such  a  universal  revival  can  save 
mankind  from  rushing  headlong  to  self -incurred  de- 
struction. The  hour  is  supremely  critical.  Human- 
ity is  at  the  fork  of  the  roads,.  The  course  the  na- 
tions now  choose  will  determine  the  destiny  of  the 
race  for  generations  to  come.  Yet,  in  face  of  the 
gravest  uncertainties,  the  follower  of  the  living 
Christ  must  ever  be  an  optimist.  He  knows  in  his 
innermost  being  the  recuperative  power  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  As  a  student  of  history  he  is  thoroughly 
conversant  with  the  fact  that  Christianity  has  re- 
deemed many  a  dark  era  from  utter  spiritual  desola- 
tion, and  sent  humanity  forward  under  the  impulse 
and  energy  of  a  newly  created  life.  The  key  to  the 
future  is  in  the  keeping  of  the  Church. 

During  the  first  decade  and  a  half  of  the  Twen- 
tieth Century,  up  to  the  fatal  year  19 14,  the  Church 
was  at  ease  in  Zion.  Universal  peace  and  prosperity 
had  soothed  the  world  into  contentment  and  self- 
esteem.    A    rich,    powerful,    luxurious   materialism 

13 


14    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

had  nourished  in  mankind  a  sense  of  profound  satis- 
faction and  false  securityu  The  Church  itself  grad- 
ually and  unconsciously  came  to  share  in  this  com- 
placency, and  to  feel  that  man  was  steadily  and 
surely  evolving  into  a  being  of  moral  refinement  and 
virtue.  Its  representatives  were  no  longer  under  the 
compelling  power  of  the  mighty  convictions,  and  the 
passion  for  humanity,  that  made  the  church  of  for- 
mer generations  so  ceaselessly  ardent  in  its  zeal  to 
seek  and  save  that  which  was  lost.  In  the  foremost 
empire  of  the  world  it  had  become  the  tool  of  the 
state,  and  the  servant  of  an  ambitious  and  aggressive 
militarism.  The  educators  of  the  civilized  nations, 
trained  for  their  vocations  in  the  renowned  universi- 
ties of  this  empire,  absorbed  the  negative  beliefs  of 
its  critical  agnosticism.  They  not  only  lost  interest 
in  the  doctrines  and  destinies  of  the  church,  but  in 
many  cases  came  to  look  with  indifference,  not  to 
say  contempt,  upon  Christianity  itself.  The  entire 
atmosphere  of  the  scholastic  and  religious  world  was 
changed.  Its  benumbing  influence  seemed  irresist- 
ible. Ministers  of  the  Gospel  lost  their  evange- 
lical earnestness  and  enthusiasm.  Their  convictions 
and  fervour  relaxed.  Their  religious  terminology 
changed.  Certain  great  words,  characteristic  of  the 
New  Testament  and  of  the  theology  of  the  Church 
for  nineteen  centuries,  gradually  dropped  out  of  the 
vocabulary  of  its  popular  instructions:  sin,  perdition, 
atonement,  redemption.  The  doctrine  of  a  natural 
ethical  development  took  the  place  of  salvation 
through  the  mercy  and  grace  of  a  sacrificial  Re- 
deemer. 


CHURCH  DISCOVERING  ITS  NEED      15 

Then  came  the  sudden  and  appalling  cataclysm  of 
the  great  war.  Civilization  itself  seemed  to  collapse. 
The  Church  was  impotent  to  stay  the  universal  de- 
bacle. The  confident  hope  of  a  self-reliant  world  was 
blasted  in  a  moment.  Beneath  all  the  gloss  and  cul- 
ture and  scientific  achievement  of  the  age  man  was 
found  to  be  the  same  abysmal  sinner  as  when,  on 
the  threshold  of  recorded  history,  "  God  saw  that  the 
wickedness  of  man  was  great  in  the  earth,  and  that 
every  imagination  of  the  thought  of  his  heart  was 
only  evil  continually."  The  brutalities  and  crimes  of 
kultur  outdid  the  cruelties  and  inhumanities  of  an 
earlier  barbarism.  Superficial  minds,  overwhelmed 
with  pessimism  and  despair,  affirmed  that  Chris- 
tianity had  failed.  These  gloomy  interpreters  of 
passing  events  lost  all  distinction  between  Church- 
anity  and  Christianity,  between  the  body  and  the 
spirit,  between  the  frailties  of  an  impotent  advocate 
and  the  truth  which  he  so  weakly  betrayed. 

In  its  latest  diagnosis  of  world  conditions,  the 
Church,  in  the  person  of  its  most  vital  and  competent 
representatives,  has  come  to  realize  that  its  impo- 
tence and  crucial  failure  were  due  to  the  superficial- 
ity of  its  religious  and  spiritual  life,  and  to  its  lack 
of  thorough  instruction  in  the  great  doctrines  of  its 
historic  faith.  The  picked  young  men  of  the  world, 
who  constituted  the  armies  that  saved  civilization, 
were,  for  the  most  part,  found  to  be  appallingly  ig- 
norant, not  only  of  the  fundamental  beliefs  of  the 
Church,  but  even  of  the  very  essence  of  Christianity 
as  revealed  in  the  New  Testament.  This  same  pa- 
thetic and  devitalizing  ignorance  is  known,  also,  to 


16    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

characterize  the  rank  and  file  of  vast  numbers  en- 
rolled in  the  membership  of  the  Church.  Their 
Oiristianity,  sincere  as  far  as  it  goes,  is  necessarily 
superficial  and  nominal  because  uninstructed  and 
uninformed.  It  has  no  adequate  hold  on  their  con- 
victions or  intelligence,  and  thus  no  self-propagating 
power  either  in  the  home  or  the  outside  world.  This 
accounts  for  the  failure  of  the  Church  to  master  and 
mould,  to  penetrate  and  vitalize  all  the  other  realms 
of  human  life,  as  it  should  and  as  it  is  inherently  able 
to  do:  education,  politics,  commerce,  industry,  gov- 
ernment, and  all  international  and  interracial  rela- 
tionships. 

A  better  day  is  near  at  hand.  Prophetic  minds  and 
hearts  are  confident  of  this.  The  hour  of  awakening 
has  come.  The  Church  is  summoning  itself  anew  to 
its  task.  It  is  realizing  as  not  for  a  generation  that 
Christ's  passion  for  humanity  must  have  its  counter- 
part in  the  soul  of  every  true  disciple.  It  has  already 
introduced  a  new  era  of  organization  and  benevo- 
lence, and  is  now  studying  with  determined  purpose 
the  problem  of  its  spiritual  life  and  religious  efii- 
ciency.  Religious  leaders  in  England  and  America, 
in  increasing  numbers,  are  alive  to  the  seriousness  of 
the  times.  Their  solicitude  is  evidence  that  a  world- 
wide revival  has  begun,  or  is  at  least  possible. 
Hearts  are  turning  with  eager  desire  to  the  saving 
truths  of  the  evangelical  Gospel  and  to  the  simple 
means  of  grace  that  were  such  a  redemptive  power 
in  days  gone  by:  Bible  reading  and  instruction, 
prayer,  the  family  altar,  the  "  upper  room  "  of  social 
fellowship  and  devotion,  public  worship,  Scriptural 


CHURCH  DISCOVERING  ITS  NEED      17 

preaching,  and  personal  ministry  to  individual  need. 
The  spiritual  life  of  men  to-day  is  as  dependent,  as 
in  any  former  age,  upon  the  religious  faith  and  de- 
votion that  made  Abraham  the  father  of  the  faithful, 
Moses  a  prophet  and  religious  statesman,  Samuel  the 
inaugurator  of  a  new  spiritual  era  in  Israel,  Isaiah  a 
seer  and  optimist  in  spite  of  his  nation's  decline  and 
moral  degradation,  John  the  Baptist  the  forerunner 
of  a  new  dispensation,  Peter  and  John  the  apostles 
of  a  victorious  gospel,  Paul,  next  to  his  Divine  Mas- 
ter, the  profoundest  philosopher  and  interpreter  of 
the  spiritual  life  in  human  history,  and  Jesus  the 
atoning  Saviour  of  mankind. 

The  Church's  power  is  internal,  not  external.  It 
captures  and  controls  institutions  only  as  it  converts 
and  saves  men.  Instead  of  leading  the  world,  it  has 
too  often  allowed  itself  to  be  led.  Instead  of  cap- 
turing civic  and  commercial  influence  and  energy  for 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  it  has  through  the  lack  of  an 
all-mastering  spiritual  vitality  permitted  selfish,  god- 
less, unscrupulous  men  to  control  our  civilization  for 
their  own  nefarious  ends. 

The  Church  is  awakening  to  the  fact,  with  vivid- 
ness and  conviction,  that  it  must  save  the  nation  and 
the  world  if  it  would  save  itself.  It  is  gaining  a  new 
consciousness  of  its  divine  mission.  The  passion  to 
communicate  its  spiritual  life  to  mankind,  every- 
where, must  be  kindled  to  its  original  Pentecostal 
glow.  A  religion  that  is  not  worth  passing  on  to 
others  is  not  worth  possessing.  The  evidence  of  its 
value  and  vitality  is  seen  in  its  desire  for  personal 
evangelism.    It  becomes  a  manly  thing  when  lived, 


18   MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

(discussed  and  proclaimed  by  manly  men.  It  must  be 
virile  and  robust  as  well  as  gentle  and  devout.  The 
chosen  disciples  most  noted  for  their  love  and  spir- 
itual enthusiasm  were  called  "  sons  of  thunder." 
Softness  is  not  catalogued  among  the  Christian 
graces;  nor  is  heroism  the  mark  of  the  man  who 
despises  things  sacred  and  holy. 

The  religion  of  Jesus  will  become  popular  when  it 
shines  forth  from  regal  lives,  and  is  witnessed  to  by 
manly  lips. 

A  man  of  fine  business  gifts  and  graces  was  urged 
to  participate  more  fully  in  the  missionary  work  of 
his  church.  He  replied  :  "  A  man  cannot  shed  light 
until  he  has  it."  He  realized  his  inability  to  enthusi- 
astically advocate  missions,  until  his  own  soul  was 
on  fire  with  conviction  as  to  their  importance  and 
necessity. 

It  is  so  in  the  realm  of  personal  religion.  The 
supreme  need  of  the  people  in  our  churches  is  to  get 
enough  religion  to  give  them  "  tongues  of  fire."  The 
very  effort  to  lead  one's  acquaintances  and  friends 
to  a  personal  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  is  often  the 
surest  and  quickest  way  to  rectify  his  life,  vitalize 
his  faith,  and  make  spiritual  things  seem  real.  In 
other  words,  the  surest  way  to  save  one's  self  is  to 
endeavour  to  save  some  one  else.  An  advocate  must 
necessarily  be  a  convert.  A  wideawake  convert  be- 
comes God's  chosen  agent  for  saving  others. 

Again  we  affirm,  with  renewed  emphasis,  that  the 
key  to  the  immediate  future,  as  well  as  to  the  ulti- 
mate destiny  of  mankind,  lies  in  the  keeping  of  the 
Church.    The  Church  must,  consequently,  inaugurate 


CHURCH  DISCOVERING  ITS  NEED      19 

a  new  crusade  in  the  interest  of  the  world's  spiritual 
welfare.  Society  is  saved  from  moral  disintegration 
to  the  extent  that  its  individual  constituents  are 
saved.  Institutions  are  upHfted  and  made  beneficent 
as  men  are  uplifted  and  redeemed.  The  task  of  re- 
newing the  world's  spiritual  life  is  the  most  stupen- 
dous ever  committed  to  human  enterprise  and  intelli- 
gence. The  Church  has  not  always  taken  its  calling 
seriously,  but  under  the  pressure  of  the  world's 
present  emergency  the  time  has  come  for  the  center- 
ing of  its  best  intelligence  and  energy  upon  its  God- 
given  mission.  Those  who  see  must  communicate 
their  vision  to  those  who  do  not  see;  those  whose 
hearts  are  warm  with  the  glow  of  divine  love  must 
kindle  other  hearts  with  the  flame  of  their  own 
heaven-inspired  passion;  those  who  have  gifts  for 
organization  and  leadership  must  see  to  it  that  the 
spiritual  forces  and  resources  of  the  Church  are  en- 
listed in  a  new  campaign  of  redemptive  effort  that 
shall  leave  no  element  in  society  untouched,  and  no 
portion  of  humanity  outside  the  reach  of  Christian 
sympathy  and  love. 

Some  signs,  in  the  midst  of  the  world's  present  dis- 
tractions and  woes,  are  exceptionally  heartening. 
The  leading  statesmen  of  Great  Britain  and  of  the 
United  States,  with  the  statesmen  of  other  nations 
consenting  and  co-operating,  are  bending  all  their 
energies  to  the  extermination  of  war  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  permanent  international  unity  and 
brotherhood,  through  the  application  of  Christian 
principles  and  ideals  to  all  human  relationships.  The 
Washington  Conference  could  never  have  been  pos- 


20    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

sible  had  not  Christianity  and  the  Church  trained 
these  international  leaders  for  the  momentous  task. 
The  results  achieved  are  prophetic  of  a  new  world 
of  moral  sanity,  mutual  trust  and  fraternal  regard. 
The  vision  of  such  possibilities  should  thrill  all  Chris- 
tian believers  with  new  hope,  and  energize  them  with 
new  purpose,  passion  and  power.  Their  indifference 
and  silence  causes  the  outside  world  to  be  indifferent 
to  its  own  need.  For  this  reason  the  gospel  message, 
from  many  a  pulpit,  has  lost  its  power  of  appeal. 
A  dead  church  can  neutralize  the  effect  of  the  most 
vital  sermon.  A  humble  ministry  in  the  pulpit  be- 
comes "  mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of 
strongholds "  when  re-lived  and  re-spoken  by  a 
people  on  fire  with  the  love  of  Christ  for  the  unsaved. 
This,  then,  must  be  the  program  of  the  Church  for 
the  coming  days.  Men  are  just  as  reachable  to-day 
as  they  ever  were,  provided  there  are  enough  vital 
hearts  to  create  the  atmosphere  of  conviction  and 
make  the  appeal.  Young  Christians,  especially, 
should  be  trained  from  the  first  for  personal  work, 
and  made  to  feel  that  they  have  not  really  appro- 
priated the  teachings,  life  and  spirit  of  the  Divine 
Master  until  they  are  eager  to  win  others  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  His  love  and  service.  Our  churches  should 
all  become  schools  of  personal  evangelism  and  cen- 
ters of  outflowing  spiritual  power.  The  nature  of 
this  work  is  the  theme  of  the  chapters  that  follow. 


II 

THE  MASTER'S  METHOD 

THE  surest  way  to  discover  truth  is  through 
the  study  of  a  soul.  No  study  is  more 
fascinating.  Nothing  is  so  interesting  as 
life;  and  the  highest  form  of  life  is  soul-life.  John 
gave  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  of  Jesus'  greatness 
when  he  said :  "  He  needed  not  that  anyone  should 
bear  witness  concerning  man,  for  he  himself  knew 
what  was  in  man." 

It  is  not  known  what  access  Jesus  had  to  the  litera- 
ture of  the  ancient  world.  Nothing  is  recorded  re- 
garding his  scholarship  or  early  education.  It  is  evi- 
dent, however,  that  he  was  familiar  with  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.  His  soul  was  saturated  with  its  sacred 
truths.  He  knew  by  heart  its  wonderful  histories, 
laws,  lofty  poetry,  inspired  prophecy.  Messianic 
hopes  and  majestic  revelations  of  God.  His  knowl- 
edge of  God  was  the  secret  of  his  knowledge  of  men. 
And  the  marvelous  thing  in  his  ministry  and  teach- 
ing was  that  his  knowledge  of  men  was  the  means 
of  expressing  his  knowledge  of  God.  His  entire 
work  and  teaching  were  personal.  He  lived  with 
men,  in  touch  with  their  every-day  lives.  He  loved 
men  and  his  whole  interest  centered  in  their  spirit- 
ual welfare.  He  walked  and  talked  and  communed 
with  people  in  the  common  relationships  of  daily  life. 
He  studied  souls.    He  availed  himself  of  every  op- 

21 


22    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

portunity  to  instruct,  comfort,  help,  guide,  and  be- 
come intimately  acquainted  with  souls.  From  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  to  the  giving  of  his  final  great 
commission  he  was  dealing,  in  word  and  deed,  with 
the  inner  life  of  his  fellow-men.  His  parables  have 
no  meaning  and  can  be  interpreted  only  as  read  in 
the  light  of  the  persons  to  whom  they  were  spoken. 
They  are  all  character  studies.  They  are  revelations 
of  man's  inner  life.  His  interpretation  of  the  mental 
and  spiritual  condition  of  mankind  everywhere  has 
no  equivalent  in  human  experience.  He  is  unap- 
proachable in  his  power  to  unveil  the  secrets  of  the 
soul.  No  one  could  conceal  from  him  his  character 
or  Intent.  He  fathomed  with  the  ease  and  accuracy 
of  divine  intuition  the  heart  of  a  child.  Rabbi,  Phari- 
see, publican,  demoniac  or  saint.  "  He  knew  what 
was  in  man." 

Jesus'  entire  ministry  was  spent  in  gaining  access 
to  souls.  He  could  chide,  comfort  or  convince  as  the 
need  required.  He  won  the  wayward  and  broken- 
hearted by  the  tender  ministries  of  his  inexhaustible 
intelligence  and  sympathy.  He  was  ever  seeking  to 
communicate  the  gift  of  eternal  life.  Nicodemus, 
the  woman  at  the  well,  Matthew  the  publican,  Zac- 
chaeus,  Jairus,  bereaved  parents,  blind  men,  and  those 
crippled  and  diseased,  and  people  in  every  condition 
of  mental,  moral  and  spiritual  need,  were  brought  to 
newness  of  life  by  his  personal  word.  He  was  ever 
meeting  need  because  he  was  ever  able  to  discern  and 
interpret  need. 

It  was  an  impressive  moment  in  the  synagogue  at 
Nazareth  when  Jesus  stood  up  in  the  presence  of  all 


THE  MASTER'S  METHOD  23 

his  home  friends  and  neighbours  and  read  that  won- 
derful passage  from  Isaiah  which  foretold  his  own 
anointing  as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel :  "  The  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  anointed  me  to 
preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor."  "  To-day,"  he  said, 
"  is  this  scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears ;  for  it  is  my 
mission  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  proclaim 
liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison 
to  them  that  are  bound."  His  words  were  so  modest, 
so  simple,  so  weighted  with  love  and  spiritual  power 
that  "  all  bare  him  witness,  and  wondered  at  the 
words  of  grace  which  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth." 

Immediately  after  his  baptism  and  spiritual  test- 
ing in  the  wilderness  he  began  to  preach,  going  about 
teaching  in  all  the  synagogues,  preaching  the  gospel 
of  the  kingdom,  and  healing  all  manner  of  disease. 
It  was  an  all-inclusive  ministry  to  the  minds  and 
bodies  and  souls  of  men.  It  brought  to  them  the 
comfort  of  physical  healing,  mental  enlightenment, 
and  spiritual  redemption  and  relief.  It  left  no  evil 
unremedied,  no  sorrow  unsoothed,  no  burden  of  guilt 
unrelieved. 

As  we  analyze  this  gracious  and  saving  work  we 
find  that  Jesus'  sympathy  comprehended  all  phases 
of  human  need.  He  dealt  with  individuals  with  as 
much  interest  and  absorbing  devotion  as  with  a  mul- 
titude. He  was  as  ardent  in  his  teaching  and  preach- 
ing when  he  spoke  to  a  single  person  or  to  a  little 
group  as  when  he  addressed  a  vast  assembly.  In  all 
these  respects  he  was  the  ideal  evangelist  and  set  the 
standard  for  all  ministers,  missionaries,  teachers,  and 


24    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

other  representatives  of  the  church,  founded  in  his 
name. 

Some  preachers  have  no  enthusiasm  unless  they 
can  address  a  great  crowd ;  some  find  personal  work 
hard,  not  to  say  repellent.  Their  passion  for  souls  is 
not  such  as  to  make  them  comprehend  the  value  of 
the  individual.  They  weary  of  the  routine  of  pas- 
toral work,  and  there  are  ministers  of  the  gospel  who 
refuse  to  give  time  to  personal  or  family  visitation. 
The  spiritual  greatness  and  effectiveness  of  this  work 
has  never  commanded  their  minds  and  hearts.  Com- 
pare with  this  the  all-encompassing  sympathy  and 
vision  of  Jesus.  How  marvelously  he  gave  himself 
without  limit  or  thought  of  self  to  all  whose  need 
made  a  claim  upon  his  compassion  and  love. 

I.  Individuals.  The  classic  illustration  of  per- 
sonal ministry  is  Jesus'  interview  with  the  Samari- 
tan woman  at  Jacob's  well.  With  what  absorbing 
interest,  intellectual  skill,  and  spiritual  ardour  he 
gave  himself  to  the  winning  of  this  wayward  soul  to 
God.  With  gracious  tact  he  penetrated  to  the  hidden 
burden  of  her  heart  and  saw  that  beneath  all  her 
seeming  unconcern  and  moral  waywardness  there  was 
a  great  hungering  for  truth  and  for  a  better  life. 
His  thoroughness  was  both  tender,  skillful,  scientific, 
and  uncompromising.  He  left  no  sin  uncovered,  and 
no  chance  for  evasion  and  escape.  The  masterfulness 
of  his  method,  coupled  with  its  gracious  sympathy, 
won  a  soul  from  darkness  to  light,  from  impenitence 
to  peace,  and  made  her  a  soul-winner  among  the  very 
people  who  had  shared  her  sin  and  unbelief. 

It  is  impossible  to  know  men  en  masse  without  first 


THE  MASTER'S  METHOD  25 

knowing  intimately  the  character,  quality,  condition, 
need,  and  experience  of  the  individual  soul.  Jesus 
knew  men  because  he  first  knew  man.  His  personal 
work  qualified  him  for  his  public  work.  He  could 
understand  a  multitude  because  he  could  fathom  and 
was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  inner  life  of  the 
individual  men  and  women  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact  daily.  The  profoundest  psychologies  of  life, 
of  truth,  and  of  human  nature  can  be  learned  in  no 
other  way.  The  effective  and  winsome  preacher 
must  know  the  individual  soul  in  order  to  know  men 
and  deal  with  men  in  large  aggregations.  Here  lies 
the  secret  of  Jesus'  marvelous  skill  and  power.  Back 
of  all  his  public  work  lay  the  ceaseless  energy  and 
accuracy  of  his  personal  work.  It  was  one  of  the 
chief  sources  of  his  intellectual  power  as  well  as  of 
his  spiritual  vision,  and  no  man  can  attain  a  master- 
ful grip  on  truth  or  any  profound  knowledge  of 
human  nature  without  dealing  at  first  hand  and  at 
close  range  with  the  mental  make-up,  moral  condi- 
tion, and  spiritual  experience  of  individuals. 

While  Jesus  went  everywhere  preaching  the  gospel 
of  the  Kingdom,  it  would  almost  seem  as  though  the 
greater  part  of  his  time  was  devoted  to  deaHng  with 
people  one  by  one,  or  in  little  groups.  It  was  now  a 
man  afflicted  with  some  physical  malady,  blindness, 
deafness,  sickness,  inherited  infirmity;  or  some  be- 
reaved and  broken-hearted  mother  following  the  life- 
less body  of  her  son  to  its  place  of  burial.  Such 
instances  in  his  career  of  ministering  love  are  mani- 
fold. Out  of  them  sprang  his  effectiveness  with  the 
multitude. 


26    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

2.  Jesus  loved  also  to  deal  with  little  groups  of 
men.  A  dozen  inquiring  disciples  were  to  him  a 
great  congregation.  One  who  cannot  thus  appreciate 
the  worth  of  the  few,  and  the  supreme  opportunity 
that  a  little  company  presents,  can  never  adequately 
meet  the  needs  of  a  vast  assembly.  The  Master's 
success  with  a  dozen  men  laid  the  foundation  of  all 
his  future  work  and  was  the  means  of  his  establish- 
ing a  church  which  for  two  thousand  years  has 
grown  in  effectiveness  and  power.  The  most  con- 
striicBve  evangelism  comes  through  instruction. 
Jesus  began  to  teach  as  well  as  to  preach  on  the 
threshold  of  his  work.  The  educational  part  of  his 
ministry  was  conspicuous  to  the  end.  The  heart  can 
love  only  as  the  mind  becomes  acquainted  with  the 
true  object  of  affection.  Instruction  in  the  Word 
lies  at  the  very  basis  of  all  redemptive  work.  Jesus 
has  contributed  more  to  the  intellectual  life,  energy, 
and  enthusiasm  of  mankind  than  all  other  persons 
and  influences  combined.  He  put  beneath  the  spirit- 
ual life  of  men  the  foundation  of  substantial  knowl- 
edge. He  made  men  know  God  in  order  to  love  Him, 
and  so  of  truth  and  of  all  the  great  spiritual  realities 
of  our  existence. 

3.  It  is  needless  to  emphasize  Christ's  ministry  to 
the  multitude.  He  never  saw  a  great  concourse  of 
people  without  being  moved  to  the  depths  of  his 
being  with  profound  compassion.  He  loved  all  souls 
because  he  saw  the  worth  of  individual  souls.  He 
loved  humanity  as  dear  to  the  heart  of  God.  He  fed 
the  multitude,  bodily,  spiritually,  that  they  might  be 
nourished  in  all  the  qualities  of  a  divine  manhood. 


THE  MASTER'S  METHOD  27 

His  passion  for  souls  culminated  in  his  supreme  self- 
giving  on  Calvary.  His  evangelism  centers  in  his 
cross.  The  outpouring  of  his  life  there  was  nothing 
new  in  his  experience  and  ministry.  From  the  very 
first  his  purpose  and  his  way  led  to  the  mount  of 
sacrifice.  All  saving  evangelism  must  take  its  pat- 
tern from  his  method  and  spirit — it  must  know  the 
worth  of  the  individual  and  give  itself  unstintedly 
to  personal  work;  it  must  gather  little  groups  for 
counsel  and  instruction;  it  must  love  the  multitude 
with  a  great  compassion,  and  be  willing  to  pour  out 
life  in  supreme  sacrifice  in  order  to  save. 

The  Christian's  inspiration  to  personal  work  comes 
from  the  individual  ministries  of  Jesus.  His  apostles 
gained  their  wonderful  power  from  imitating  him. 
Every  great  evangelist  from  Paul  to  the  present  day 
became  a  soul-winner  by  reproducing  his  method  and 
spirit.  The  gospel  is  direct  and  personal  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  There  is  not  an  abstract  or  indirect 
word  in  all  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  He  ever  stood  face 
to  face  with  souls.  His  early  disciples  were  all  won 
through  personal  influence  and  appeal. 

In  Christ's  own  personal  ministries  the  Church  has 
the  key  to  its  true  method  and  power;  and  every 
pastor,  evangelist  and  Christian  worker  the  pledge  of 
his  own  success  as  a  winner  of  souls. 


Ill 

QUALIFICATIONS 

THE  first   three    qualifications   for   successful 
personal  evangelism  are: 
(a)  An  unquestioning  assurance  of  the 
fact  and  necessity  of  the  new  birth  through  one's  own 
vital  experience  of  the  regenerate  life. 

(b)  Familiar  acquaintance  with  the  Bible  and  its 
working  passages. 

(c)  Ability  to  read  men,  coupled  with  tact  and 
skill  in  one's  method  of  approach. 

I.  Any  doubt  as  to  the  universal  necessity  of  the 
new  birth  cuts  the  nerve  of  conviction  and  power. 
The  whole  question  hinges  here.  Personal  evangel- 
ism finds  its  incentive  and  starting-point  in  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  in  the  third  chapter  of  St.  John's  Gos- 
pel. His  word  to  Nicodemus,  "  Ye  must  be  born 
again,"  must  be  our  word  to  every  inquiring  soul. 
The  third  chapter  of  Romans  is  its  counterpart :  "  All 
have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God." 
"  There  is  none  righteous,  no  not  one."  The  neces- 
sity of  redemption  and  of  a  Saviour  rests  upon  these 
teachings  of  the  Master  and  of  his  apostles. 

All  Scripture  confirms  this  view  of  human  need. 
From  Genesis  to  Revelation  there  is  not  a  verse  that 
intimates  that  any  member  or  portion  of  the  race  can 
win,  by  his  own  inherent  and  acquired  goodness,  a 

28 


QUALIFICATIONS  29 

place  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Salvation  is  not  of 
works.  Paul  had  in  mind  all  humanity — the  cultured 
and  virtuous  as  well  as  the  debased  and  criminal — 
when  he  said :  "  By  grace  are  ye  saved  through 
faith;  and  that  not  of  yourselves;  it  is  the  gift  of 
God." 

The  apprehension  of  this  truth  comes  through  ex- 
perience. No  regenerate  man  ever  bases  his  claim 
to  divine  favour  on  his  own  self-acquired  righteous- 
ness. His  -spiritual  renewal  carries  with  it  a  pro- 
found self -revelation.  He  discovers  the  sinfulness 
and  need  of  universal  human  nature  when  his  own 
heart  is  unveiled  in  the  presence  of  the  holy  Christ. 
He  may  have  been  brought  up  in  an  ideal  Qiristian 
home ;  nourished  by  prayer  and  religious  instruction ; 
renewed  in  heart  so  early  that  he  never  could  recall 
the  time  when  he  did  not  love  God,  yet  he  is  as 
conscious  of  his  unworthiness  and  inherent  need  as 
if  redeemed  in  later  years  from  a  wayward  and  cor- 
rupt life.  In  fact  the  earlier  the  conversion,  and  the 
more  innocent  the  heart  of  blinding  and  benumbing 
evil,  the  more  intelligent  and  masterful  is  the  con- 
viction that  the  supreme  need  of  mankind  is  spiritual 
renewal  through  the  saving  grace  of  Jesus  Christ. 

2.  Adequate  intellectual  and  spiritual  equipment  is 
gained  only  by  familiar  acquaintance  with  the  Word 
of  God.  The  Bible  is  the  text-book  of  the  spiritual 
life.  It  meets  every  variety  of  moral  need.  Its 
working  passages  should  be  at  the  finger-tips  and 
tongue's  end  of  every  Christian  worker.  If  fencing 
with  the  sword  is  an  art  that  requires  practice  and 
skill,  much  finer  is  the  mental  and  spiritual  art  of 


30    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

using  effectively  "  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is 
the  Word  of  God." 

A  skeptic,  a  self-righteous  man,  a  hypocrite,  a 
profligate,  a  timid,  halting  inquirer,  cannot  be  dealt 
with  in  the  same  way.  They  differ  in  intellectual  at- 
titude and  desire,  and  in  moral  quality.  Scripture 
that  applies  to  one  may  not  apply  to  another.  To 
know  how  to  select  verses  and  passages  with  refer- 
ence to  the  special  case  in  hand  soon  becomes  a  facile 
art  under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  human  teacher  may  also  be  of  great  service. 
The  writer  is  more  indebted  to  a  lay  evangelist  for 
whatever  skill  he  may  have  in  the  use  of  the  Bible  in 
personal  work  than  to  the  theological  seminary.  In 
the  seminary  the  student  becomes  familiar  with  exe- 
gesis, theology,  church  history,  and  the  method  of 
constructing  sermons,  but  is  not  taught  how  to  use 
the  Bible  in  dealing  with  individual  souls.  For  this 
reason  a  few  weeks  with  a  skilled  evangelist  is  of  un- 
told value  to  one  who  wishes  to  become  efficient  in 
winning  men  individually  to  God. 

Nothing  in  such  personal  work  is  more  useless 
than  mere  argument.  To  convince  the  intellect  is  not 
to  convert  the  soul.  People  make  little  of  logic  in 
moral  choices  and  action ;  and  for  this  reason,  as  an- 
other has  ably  said,  "it  is  impossible  to  argue  one 
out  of  a  belief  into  which  he  was  not  argued." 
Moral  causes  lie  back  of  mental  processes.  A  bad 
man's  thinking  is  instantly  rectified  when  his  heart 
is  changed.  Nothing  will  so  quickly  reach  his  heart, 
convince  his  intelect  and  subdue  his  will  as  the  Word 
of  God,  tactfully,  tenderly  and  intelligently  used.    To 


QUALIFICATIONS  31 

relate  its  truths  to  the  mental  and  moral  state  of  an 
eager,  inquiring  yet  unrepentant  soul  is  a  divinely 
beautiful  art.  By  no  process  of  study  can  one  so 
quickly  and  completely  master  the  nature  and  laws 
of  the  spiritual  life,  the  secret  of  redemption,  the  con- 
dition and  need  of  the  human  heart,  the  deeper  truths 
of  theology,  as  by  the  close  application  of  the  Word 
of  God  to  individual  need. 

3.  Such  personal  work,  intelligently  and  skilfully 
done,  results  in  a  marvelous  ability  to  read  men.  It 
is  nothing  less  than  the  science  of  interpreting  souls. 
It  cannot  be  mastered  without  the  clinic,  any  more 
than  chemistry  can  be  mastered  without  the  labora- 
tory, or  the  physician's  art  without  personal  prac- 
tice, or  surgery  without  a  body  upon  which  to  oper- 
ate. Face  to  face  with  souls  we  become  acquainted 
with  their  innermost  life.  In  the  light  of  God's  word 
the  secrets  of  the  heart  are  unveiled.  One  who,  as  a 
spiritual  physician,  is  skilled  in  diagnosis,  and,  as  a 
spiritual  surgeon,  knows  how  to  probe  to  the  very 
center  of  the  malady,  is  able  to  read  men  far  better 
than  they  can  read  themselves.  Face,  voice,  manner, 
become  infallible  guides  to  the  quality  of  the  inner 
life.  Specialists  in  soul-winning, — and  every  pastor 
should  be  a  specialist, — become  familiar  with  all 
varieties  of  mental  action  and  moral  mood.  The  in- 
tricacies of  the  soul's  activities  are  very  subtle.  Sin- 
cerity and  self-deception;  eager  desire  and  evasion, 
often  seemingly  go  hand  in  hand.  The  accuracy  of 
Jeremiah's  diagnosis  becomes  apparent  in  untold  in- 
stances :  "  The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things, 
and  desperately  wicked;  who  can  know  it?"     His 


32    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

very  language  implies  that  the  heart  may  not  be  con- 
scious of  its  own  trickeries  and  insubordination. 

No  two  individuals  can  be  approached  in  the  same 
way.  Unbelievers  differ  in  temperament,  training, 
inheritance,  education,  moral  capacity,  motive  and 
condition.  Some  are  antagonistic  to  truth,  others 
eagerly  searching  for  it ;  some  sincere,  others  hypocrit- 
ical ;  some  upright  in  conduct,  others  vicious  and  wil- 
fully evil;  some  timid,  hesitant,  introspective,  sensi- 
tive in  heart  and  conscience,  others  brazen,  unrefined, 
and  utterly  unconscious  of  any  spiritual  need. 

One  who  ministers  to  the  fundamental  want  of  the 
individual  soul  soon  discovers  that  he  must  cover  a 
wide  range  of  experience.  He  is  likely  to  find  in  the 
first  twelve  he  meets  as  great  a  variety  as  Jesus 
found  in  his  strangely  differing  apostles,  ranging  in 
temperament  and  character  all  the  way  from  the  lov- 
ing and  trustful  John  to  the  doubting  Thomas ;  from 
the  ardent  and  ultimately  most  loyal  Peter  to  the 
false  and  traitorous  Judas.  These  varieties  include 
agnostics,  skeptics,  infidels,  doubters  of  all  kinds, 
slaves  to  appetite  and  to  every  evil  and  ungoverned 
passion,  hypocrites,  scorners,  revilers,  the  self- 
deceived,  proud,  wilful,  worldly  self-righteous,  the 
ignorant,  spiritually  blind,  religiously  untaught  or 
with  perverted  views  of  religion,  the  penitent,  the 
morally  weak  and  disheartened,  those  dissatisfied 
with  self,  hungry  for  truth,  eager  for  something  bet- 
ter, craving  friendship  and  help,  ready  for  guidance, 
those  who  have  never  through  all  their  mature  years 
given  up  the  prayers  of  their  childhood  nor  the  read- 
ing of  the  Bible,  and  yet  who  are  conscious  of  not 


QUALIFICATIONS  33 

being  in  right  relations  to  God,  themselves  or  their 
fellow-men,  who  are  very  near  the  kingdom  of  God, 
but  have  not  entered  in.  One  who  keeps  in  touch 
with  men  and  seeks  helpfully  to  enter  into  the  secret 
of  their  inner  life,  finds  all  these  varieties  of  mental 
and  moral  condition,  ranging  from  hostile  unbelief 
and  bitter  antagonism  to  the  spirit  of  eager  and  pray- 
erful inquiry.  He  must  be  able  to  enter  intelligently 
and  sympathetically  into  the  innermost  thought  and 
experience  of  all  these  and  minister  as  helpfully  to 
those  reared  in  infidelity  and  sin  as  to  those  born  to 
a  heritage  of  faith  and  devotion. 


IV 
THE  DIFFICULTIES  OF  THE  TASK 

THE  storming  of  a  fortress  is  child's  play  com- 
pared with  the  storming  of  the  citadel  of 
an  individual  soul.  Any  one  with  physical 
courage  and  the  enginery  of  war  can  do  the  former, 
but  it  takes  one  enlightened  by  divine  grace,  ener- 
gized by  a  mighty  and  discerning  love,  and  fortified 
with  unhesitating  conviction  of  a  universal  human 
need,  to  place  some  people,  unconscious  of  their  spir- 
itual condition,  in  the  category  of  the  unsaved,  and 
then  face  the  personal  task  of  winning  them  to  God. 
To  classify  them,  in  personal  approach  and  appeal, 
as  "  sinners,"  in  supreme  need  of  the  saving  grace 
of  an  infinite  and  sacrificial  love,  from  the  human 
point  of  view  seems  effrontery  of  the  most  offensive, 
not  to  say  insolent,  kind.  Yet  no  pastor,  evangelist, 
or  personal  worker  is  qualified  to  represent  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Master,  or  do  redemptive  work  until  he 
has  learned  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  and 
that  the  fundamental  and  universal  human  need  is 
the  same  in  the  suburbs  as  in  the  slums,  in  brightest 
America  as  in  darkest  Africa.  Let  the  philosophers 
have  their  logomachies  about  the  moral  status  of  the 
race,  and  theologians  their  controversies  over  the  oft- 
misrepresented  and  perverted  term  "  total  depravity  " ; 
but  the  winner  of  souls  must  never  be  doubtful  or 

34 


DIFFICULTIES  OF  THE  TASK  35 

timid  in  the  presence  of  any  person,  however  noble 
in  the  terminology  of  earth,  who  is  still  unacquainted 
with  the  saving  grace  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  sacri- 
ficial work  of  Jesus. 

The  most  difficult  task  in  all  preaching  and  per- 
sonal work  is  to  treat  certain  cultured,  delightful, 
well-environed  people  as  sinners.  The  word  sinner 
is  used  intentionally,  for  until  we  can  employ  it  in 
our  mental  conception  of  an  actual  condition,  we  are 
fundamentally  skeptical  of  a  universal  spiritual  need. 
Nothing  so  paralyzes  one's  power  and  renders  him 
utterly  impotent  and  useless  in  personal  work  as  to 
doubt  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  new  birth.  The 
surgeon  is  compelled  to  be  as  thorough  and  scientific 
in  the  home  of  wealth  and  comfort  as  in  the  home  of 
poverty  and  unsanitary  conditions.  The  same  hero- 
ism and  skill  are  imperative  in  spiritual  diagnosis. 
The  most  subtle  and  fatal  forms  of  irreligion  are 
found  under  the  garb  of  culture.  A  profound  spir- 
itual intelligence  and  an  unflinching  heroism  are  pre- 
requisites in  the  scientific  treatment  of  such  spiritual 
need. 

With  thoroughness  must  go  a  most  gracious  and 
winsome  tactfulness.  To  offend  is  to  lose  one's  op- 
portunity, except  when  offense  is  the  result  of  God's 
truth,  lovingly  and  skilfully  applied.  In  such  case 
the  sign  of  anger  or  of  being  offended  may  be  the 
first  step  in  the  process  of  conversion  and  recovery, 
and  the  certain  proof  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has  begun 
his  work  of  breaking  down  the  proud,  stubborn,  in- 
subordinate will. 

The  offense  must,  however,  not  be  personal.    The 


36    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

issue  must  be  between  the  inquirer's  soul  and  God, 
and  not  a  controversy  with  his  pastor  and  friend. 
The  natural  heart,  in  its  pride  of  intellect  and  in  its 
self-righteousness,  resents  the  New  Testament 
declaration  that  the  "  mind  of  the  flesh  is  enmity 
against  God."  Men  often  become  violently  angry  at 
the  impHcation  of  such  enmity  on  their  part.  Such 
anger  is  only  increasing  evidence  that  they  are  utterly 
unacquainted  with  the  antagonism  of  the  unrenewed 
heart  to  the  wdll  of  God.  The  issue  had  perhaps 
never  before  been  intelligently  made.  The  conflict 
had,  possibly,  never  been  openly  and  consciously 
joined.  But  it  is  without  exception  true  that  the 
natural  heart,  the  "  mind  of  the  flesh,  is  not  subject 
to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be."  Human 
society  abounds  in  people  of  this  class.  They  attend 
our  churches,  are  in  our  homes  of  intelligence  and 
culture,  are  morally  upright,  yet  are  living  without 
conscious  relation  to  God  or  any  conviction  of  their 
supreme  personal  need  of  Him. 

No  class  of  people  is  so  religiously  neglected  as 
this.  They  seem  unapproachable.  They  are  appar- 
ently self-satisfied  and  self-suflicient.  To  seek  access 
to  their  inner  life  seems  obtrusive,  not  to  say  dis- 
courteous. How,  then,  shall  people  of  such  refine- 
ment and  moral  integrity  be  won  to  a  conviction  of 
personal  need? 

This  is  the  problem  of  the  Church,  of  Christianity, 
of  personal  evangelism. 

Emphasis  is  placed  on  this  particular  class,  for  no 
one  questions  the  imperative  need  of  the  lower 
grades  of  society.      It  is  taken  for  granted  that  if 


DIFFICULTIES  OF  THE  TASK  37 

evangelistic  effort  is  to  be  made  it  will  be  made  here. 
Christianity,  however,  is  a  failure  to  the  extent 
that  it  leaves  any  realms  of  human  life,  high  or  low, 
unentered  and  unsaved.  The  social  nature  of  man 
calls  for  social  forms  of  religious  life  and  work. 
People  cannot  be  reached  at  arm's  length.  The  mes- 
sage spoken  from  pulpit  or  platform  may  sometimes 
carry  truth  from  heart  to  heart,  but  the  larger  work 
of  the  world's  evangelization  must  be  done  through 
personal  touch.  Hand  must  grasp  hand;  eye  must 
look  into  eye;  heart  must  feel  the  sympathy  and 
friendship  of  heart.  The  fraternities  of  Christian 
companionship  and  love  are  the  most  satisfying  and 
compelling  on  earth.  To  master  the  science  of  per- 
sonal approach  is  the  supreme  duty  and  the  noblest 
achievement  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  individual 
disciple  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  three  thousand  souls 
converted  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost  have  often,  and 
wrongly,  been  credited  alone  to  the  power  of  Peter's 
sermon.  That  sermon  did,  indeed,  have  in  it  the  pas- 
sion and  pathos  of  Christ's  sacrificial  love  and  the 
new  enduement  of  the  Spirit;  but  back  of  it  and  in 
and  through  it  were  the  prayers  and  faith  and  testi- 
mony of  one  hundred  and  twenty  disciples  equally 
faithful  in  witnessing  to  the  power  of  the  risen 
Saviour,  equally  dedicated  to  personal  work,  equally 
eager  for  the  souls  of  their  fellow-men.  Without 
them  Peter's  sermon  would  have  fallen  lifeless  upon 
the  hearts  of  the  hostile  and  unbelieving  multitudes 
in  the  throbbing  metropolis.  Their  tongues  of  fire, 
their  unity  of  spirit,  and  their  manifest  enduement 
from  on  high,   wrought  the  first  great  miracle  of 


38    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

astonishment  and  conviction,  and  created  the  atmos- 
phere of  wonder,  expectation  and  faith  that  made  it 
possible  for  Peter  to  harvest  the  mighty  spiritual 
fruitage  of  that  marvelous  day.  So  unspeakably  im- 
portant is  this  partnership  of  the  people  with  their 
minister  in  witnessing  to  the  saving  power  of  the 
Gospel,  that  the  following  chapter  is  given  entirely 
to  a  study  of  the  social,  psychological  and  spiritual 
processes  that  made  possible  the  mighty  miracle  of 
Pentecost,  as  recorded  in  the  second  chapter  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  that  resulted  in  organized 
Christianity  and  the  founding  of  the  Christian 
Church. 


V 

THE  PARTNERSHIP  OF  PERSONAL 

TESTIMONY  AND  PUBLIC 

PREACHING 

THE  preacher  is  not  an  independent  advocate, 
but  a  partner  in  a  great  spiritual  enterprise. 
The  pulpit  is  not  an  isolated  institution,  but 
simply  one  factor  in  an  important  social  and  religious 
agency.  The  two  are  interdependent  and  neither 
can  attain  extensive  influence  or  permanent  success 
alone.  The  failure  of  the  people  to  realize  this  ac- 
counts for  the  corresponding  impotence  of  the 
Church.  No  successful  modern  evangelist,  whether 
a  Moody,  a  Chapman,  a  "  Gipsy "  Smith,  or  a 
"  Billy  "  Sunday,  accepts  an  engagement  without  the 
assured  co-operation  and  spiritual  sympathy  of  the 
people.  He  insists,  as  a  primary  condition  of  success, 
upon  their  united  participation  in  organization,  effort, 
prayer  and  spiritual  preparation.  This  preliminary 
work  is  both  a  psychological  and  a  spiritual  necessity. 
It  focuses  the  public  mind  upon  the  fundamental  im- 
portance of  religion,  and  upon  the  need  of  personal 
salvation.  It  puts  the  Church  back  of  the  enterprise. 
It  throws  responsibihty  for  its  success  upon  the 
hearts  and  shoulders  of  the  entire  membership. 

In   doing  this   the   evangelist   recognizes   a   well- 
known  psychological  law,  operative  in  every  realm  of 

3d 


40    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

human  interest,  viz.,  that  Httle  or  no  impression  can 
be  made  upon  one  who  has  no  interest  in  or  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject  to  be  presented.  A  lecture  on  art 
attracts  only  those  who  are  interested  in  art.  A 
majestic  symphony  or  oratorio  appeals  to  none  but 
lovers  of  music.  Spiritual  things  mean  nothing  to 
secular  minds  or  to  those  who  give  themselves  to  dis- 
sipation and  pleasure.  In  accordance  with  this  law, 
a  community  must  be  awakened  to  curiosity  or  gen- 
uine interest  before  it  responds  to  religious  influence 
or  appeal. 

There  is  ancient  and  scriptural  precedent  for  this. 
No  one  can  thoughtfully  read  the  story  of  Pentecost 
in  the  second  chapter  of  Acts  without  being  pro- 
foundly impressed  with  the  striking  operation  of  this 
law.  Six  score  disciples,  after  forty  days  of  frequent 
and  intimate  fellowship  with  the  risen  Lord,  after 
receiving  from  him  their  commission  to  preach  his 
everlasting  Gospel,  and  the  promise  of  the  Holy 
Spirit's  indwelling  presence  and  power,  gave  them- 
selves to  many  days  of  confident  and  expectant 
prayer.  In  the  fellowship  of  that  experience  they 
were  so  moulded  together  in  unity  of  love  and  pur- 
pose that  they  became  not  only  willing  and  glad  re- 
cipients of  a  new  spiritual  energy  and  passion,  but 
also  ardent  and  eloquent  witnesses  to  the  wonder  and 
power  of  the  Pentecostal  miracle.  Jerusalem  was 
stirred  from  center  to  circumference.  The  entire  city 
felt  the  impulse  and  impact  of  this  new  and  mysteri- 
ous life.  People  everywhere  began  to  inquire  as  to 
its  nature  and  meaning.  Some  mocked,  others  were 
stirred  to  fear  and  antagonism,  while  multitudes  were 


PARTNERSHIP  OF  TESTIMONY  41 

smitten  with  conviction  and  made  conscious  of  their 
need  of  God.  Whatever  the  mood  or  emotion,  the 
impression  made  by  the  testimony  of  the  disciples 
was  universal  and  profound. 

At  this  point  of  public  interest  Peter  arose  and 
made  an  address  so  eloquent  and  impassioned,  so  con- 
vincing and  inspired  that  thousands,  in  penitence  and 
confession,  were  moved  to  espouse  openly  the  new 
faith  and  become  ardent  disciples  of  the  risen  Christ. 
This  spiritual  revolution  on  the  part  of  three  thou- 
sand souls  was  the  birth  hour  of  the  Christian 
Church.  It  was  not  like  the  impulsive  and  fickle 
movement  of  the  populace  at  the  time  of  Jesus'  tri- 
umphal entry  into  Jerusalem,  but  was  the  result  of  a 
permanent  spiritual  reaction  and  renewal  which 
gained  numbers  and  momentum  as  the  days  and 
weeks  and  months  went  by. 

It  has  been  customary  to  ascribe  this  far-reaching 
Pentecostal  revival  to  the  convicting  and  converting 
power  of  Peter's  heart-searching  sermon,  and  cer- 
tainly no  one  can  gainsay  its  spiritual  energy  and  ef- 
fectiveness ;  but  had  the  apostle  stood  alone  and 
spoken  under  ordinary  circumstances  his  words,  in 
spite  of  their  passion  and  eloquence,  would  have 
fallen  impotently  upon  dull  and  unresponsive  ears. 
The  foundation  of  his  success  was  laid  in  the  ardent 
testimony  and  spiritual  earnestness  of  his  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  fellow  Christians.  All  Jerusalem 
had  been  set  on  fire  by  the  glow  of  their  love,  the 
courage  of  their  faith,  the  unity  of  their  spirit,  and 
the  convincing  power  of  their  words. 

This  preparatory  work  was  all  the  more  beneficent 


42    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

and  far-reaching  for  being  spontaneous  rather  than 
intentional,  impromptu  in  its  expression  of  a  new  and 
irrepressible  love  rather  than  a  studied  purpose  to  in- 
fluence a  metropohs ;  nevertheless,  it  was  propaganda 
of  the  most  wholesome  and  effective  kind.  It  pre- 
pared the  way  for  Peter's  eloquent  and  convincing 
address. 

The  entire  program  of  this  exceptional  day  throws 
a  marvelous  light  on  the  psychology  of  social  religion 
and  on  the  laws  which  operate  in  the  spiritual  life  of 
large  aggregations  of  people.  It  compels  one  to 
marvel  at  the  sensitiveness  of  what  may  be  termed 
the  community  soul.  Men  do  indeed  think  and  act 
as  individuals,  but  just  as  truly  they  act  under  the 
influence  of  a  corporate  consciousness.  They  are 
swayed  en  masse.  They  move,  often,  as  a  unit,  and 
can  be  reached  only  as  the  popular  interest  and  feel- 
ing are  enlisted  for  or  against  some  particular  inter- 
est or  cause.  Consequently  an  address  or  appeal, 
whether  political  or  religious,  becomes  effective  in 
proportion  as  a  city  or  community  is  prepared  for  its 
presentation.  This  constitutes  the  significance  and 
purpose  of  all  that  is  included  under  the  much  used 
word  "  propaganda."  The  world  has  had  sad  occa- 
sion to  know  the  far-reaching  and  often  fatal  power 
of  this  method  of  influencing  men  and  nations.  The 
term  "  propaganda  "  may  cover  all  kinds  of  secret, 
subtle  and  malign  influence  intended  to  mislead  and 
pervert  the  people  of  an  empire  or  a  hemisphere. 
Germany  wrought  her  disastrous  work  upon  her  own 
people,  and  upon  the  people  of  other  lands  in  accord- 
ance with  this  subtle  psychological  law.    By  pervert- 


PARTNERSHIP  OF  TESTIMONY  43 

ing  men's  minds,  everywhere,  through  falsehood,  cun- 
ning and  deceit  she  hoped  to  prepare  the  way  for  her 
long  anticipated  conquest  of  the  world. 

But  propaganda,  thus  perverted  and  malignly  used, 
stands  for  a  power  and  process  that  may  be  entirely 
beneficent  and  essential  to  the  spiritual  recovery  of 
benighted,  misguided  or  morally  debased  people.  It 
recognizes  a  psychological  law  and  a  social  solidarity 
that  must  be  intelligently  utilized  before  society  can 
be  regenerated  in  the  springs  of  its  intellectual  and 
moral  life. 

Until  the  Church  awakes  to  the  necessity  of  a 
similar  preparatory  work  for  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  its  expenditure  of  time,  money  and  effort  will, 
largely,  be  in  vain.  The  average  Christian  is  not  a 
propagandist.  He  has  no  story  to  tell,  no  good  news 
to  proclaim,  no  cause  to  advocate,  no  passion  for 
social  redemption.  Hence  the  Jerusalem  of  to-day  is 
unprepared  for  the  prophetic  message  of  its  inspired 
and  divinely  commissioned  Peters.  Hence  it  is  that 
the  modern  apostles  are,  so  many  of  them,  passion- 
less and  impotent.  They  are  not  vitalized  by  an  en- 
vironment of  spiritual  enthusiasm  and  purpose.  They 
hear  no  tongues  of  fire  on  the  part  of  their  fellow- 
disciples,  telling  the  story  of  God's  grace  to  all  classes 
of  people,  in  all  parts  of  the  community  or  metropolis. 

Were  the  followers  of  the  Divine  Master  alive 
to  their  opportunity  and  mission,  they  could  make 
every  village  and  city  in  our  land  throb  with  as  in- 
tense an  eagerness  and  interest  as  did  Jerusalem 
when  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  went  everywhere 
telling  the  story  of  their  new  life  through  the  power 


44    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

of  the  risen  Christ.  Assuredly,  if  Christians  have 
no  story  to  tell,  no  testimony  to  give,  no  wondrous 
gospel  to  proclaim,  the  populace  will  care  little  for 
the  individual  Peters  who  stand  in  their  separate  pul- 
pits and  proclaim  truth  to  which  the  public  attention 
has  not  been  called. 

There  seems  little  hope  of  mastering  and  moulding 
human  society  with  the  spirit,  principles  and  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  Christ  until  his  disciples,  in  large  num- 
bers, become  witnesses  to  the  eternal  verities  and 
spiritual  potentialities  of  their  faith.  His  final  com- 
mand was,  "  Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  *  *  *  unto 
the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  The  Pentecostal 
awakening  that  gave  birth  to  organized  Christianity 
and  to  modern  history  was  the  product  of  the  unani- 
mous testimony  and  ardour  of  all  of  Christ's  follow- 
ers in  Jerusalem.  The  word  "  propaganda,"  made 
offensive  by  its  perversions  and  malign  uses,  never- 
theless stands  for  the  most  vital  work  the  Church  is 
called  to  do.  The  great  cities  of  America,  and  the 
nation  entire,  could  be  made  to  pulsate  with  eager 
inquiry  and  intense  spiritual  desire  if  all  Christians 
were  vital  and  winsome  propagandists  of  their  faith. 
In  this  way  only  has  Christian  Science  made  its  rapid 
and  surprising  growth.  The  great  majority  of  its 
adherents  are  ardent  advocates  of  their  cult.  They 
do  not  rely  upon  a  prophetic  priesthood  or  ministry, 
but  take  upon  themselves  the  espousal  of  the  cause 
to  which  they  belong. 

The  mission  of  evangelical  Christianity  to  win  the 
world  to  God  will  never  be  accomplished  on  any  ade- 
quate scale  until  it  so  vitalizes  its  adherents  as  to 


PARTNERSHIP  OF  TESTIMONY  45 

make  them  propagandists  of  their  divinely  given 
gospel.  Every  agency  of  the  Church  should  now  be 
focused  on  enlisting  its  entire  membership  vitally  in 
evangelistic  effort;  that  is  in  the  fundamental  and 
preparatory  work  of  awakening  interest  in  Christian- 
ity on  the  part  of  the  outside  world — the  secular,  ma- 
terialistic, non-Christian  portion  of  society. 

When  this  extended  testimony  is  given — that  is, 
when  the  members  of  the  Christian  Church  begin  to 
talk  about  their  religion  in  a  normal,  earnest  and 
practical  way  as  they  do  about  other  things  of  com- 
manding interest  in  the  common  fellowships  of  daily 
life,  the  non-Christian  world  will  open  its  eyes  with 
amazement,  will  begin  to  inquire  the  meaning  of  this 
social  interest  and  solicitude,  and  will  be  heard  ask- 
ing, "  What  must  we  do  to  be  saved  ?  " 

This  is  not  a  sentimental  view  of  personal  religion. 
If  the  teachings  of  Christ  are  the  foundation  of 
virtue  and  social  order,  if  they  contain  the  remedy 
for  all  the  world's  moral  corruption  and  chaos,  for 
its  selfishness,  inhumanities  and  misgovernment,  if 
they  guarantee  righteousness  and  brotherly  love,  spir-"^ 
itual  enlightenment  and  redemption  for  all  mankind, 
then  no  theme  should  be  so  much  on  the  lips  of  in- 
telligent people,  and  so  thoroughly  discussed  and  ad- 
vocated, as  the  only  hope  of  the  race.  The  strange 
human  perversion  that  makes  people  silent  upon  the 
one  subject  that  is  fundamental  to  all  of  mankind's 
highest  interests  is  one  of  the  surest  evidences  of 
their  need  of  spiritual  emancipation  and  renewal. 
This  bondage  is  due  to  the  enslaving  power  of  sin. 
Tongues  are  loosed  when  the  Spirit  of  God  breaks 


46    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

through  the  social  conventions  that  hold  men  captive 
to  earth.  Hearts  that  never  knew  the  courage  and 
the  delight  of  freedom  voice  their  new-found  joy 
when  unshackled  from  the  fetters  of  worldly  fear. 
The  disciples  in  Jerusalem  were  not  emotionalists, 
but  spiritually  emancipated  men  and  women,  who 
dared  say  their  souls  were  their  own,  and  who  dared 
to  make  their  wondrous  experience  the  theme  of  or- 
dinary conversation.  This  is  the  emancipation  that 
the  Christian  Church  most  needs  to-day,  and  which 
it  must  experience  if  it  is  ever  to  carry  the  saving 
truths  of  its  religion  out  into  the  world  of  secular 
thought  and  spiritual  impoverishment,  and  make  men 
believe  that  there  is  a  remedy  for  all  their  follies, 
failures,  sorrows,  and  sins.  The  world  has  lost  its 
bearings.  It  is  perishing  through  its  ignorance  and 
need  of  God.  The  time  has  come  for  the  Church, 
in  all  its  membership,  to  recover  its  poise  and  pur- 
pose, its  passion  and  power,  its  convictions  and  cour- 
age, its  spiritual  enthusiasms  and  enterprise,  and 
enter  upon  a  new  era  of  intelligent  and  confident 
propagandism.  For  Christian  believers  to  keep  silent 
to-day,  in  the  midst  of  such  universal  need,  is  a  sin 
against  the  Holy  Spirit  of  Pentecost,  an  unspeakable 
wrong  to  one's  fellow-men,  and  a  practical  impeach- 
ment of  the  genuineness  of  our  personal  Christianity. 
"  Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses,"  is  Christ's  permanent 
command  to  his  disciples  everywhere. 


VI 

THE  OPPORTUNITIES  OF  THE  WORK 

THE  difficulties  are  not  as  many  and  great  as 
the  opportunities.  Jesus  said,  ''  the  fields 
are  white  unto  the  harvest."  It  is  ever  so. 
The  human  heart,  out  of  fellowship  with  God,  is 
never  satisfied.  If  approached  tactfully  and  in  the 
spirit  of  genuine  friendship,  people,  with  rare  excep- 
tions, welcome  conversation  on  the  subject  of  re- 
ligion, which  means  on  the  deepest  and  most  funda- 
mental problems  of  life.  Even  if  skeptical  of  the 
vital  power  of  Christianity  they  are,  nevertheless, 
profoundly  interested  in  the  themes  it  presents  and  in 
the  discussion  it  compels. 

A  certain  young  man  gifted  with  skill  in  personal 
approach,  and  eager  to  help  his  associates  to  find  the 
secret  of  the  Christian  life,  is  constantly  leading  up 
to  conversation  on  the  matter  of  personal  religion  by 
such  incidental  questions  as  this :  "  Where  did  you 
go  to  church  yesterday  ?  "  The  answer  may  be  :  "I 
do  not  go  to  church  at  all."  This  opens  the  way  for 
asking  the  reasons  for  not  going.  The  rest  of  the 
way  is  easy,  for  without  any  seeming  desire  to  pry 
into  matters  of  personal  experience,  the  conversation 
drifts  into  a  frank  discussion  of  the  most  vital  prob- 
lems of  the  spiritual  life.  This  earnest  Christian 
young  man  has  conversed  with  scores  of  young  men 

47 


48    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

since  hi^  public  confession  of  Christ,  and  says  there 
is  scarcely  a  fellow  he  meets  that  is  not  only  glad, 
but  in  many  cases  eager  to  discuss  matters  of  faith, 
personal  religion,  and  the  character  and  claims  of 
Jesus. 

More  people  are  waiting  and  wishing  for  the  kind 
interest  of  some  earnest  Christian  in  their  spiritual 
welfare  than  is  ever  suspected.  The  personal  worker 
soon  discovers  this  fact,  for  many  a  person  ap- 
proached says  to  him :  "  I  am  grateful  to  you  for 
speaking  to  me  on  this  subject;  I  have  been  waiting 
for  this  for  years  and  have  wondered  why  it  is  that 
Christian  people,  professing  to  believe  as  they  do, 
never  speak  to  their  friends  about  the  salvation  of 
their  souls."  The  writer  once  had  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty in  making  a  splendid  young  man,  reared  in  a 
Christian  home,  believe  there  was  anything  real  or 
vital  in  the  religion  of  Christ,  because,  he  said: 
"  You  are  the  first  person  that  ever  spoke  to  me  on 
the  subject  of  my  personal  relation  to  God."  "  Why 
is  it,"  he  asked,  "  if  the  salvation  of  the  soul  is  of 
such  great  importance,  that  people  who  profess  to  be 
saved  never  speak  about  it?  " 

His  perplexity  was  natural  and  well-founded.  It 
is  a  severe  reflection  on  the  religious  genuineness  and 
vitality  of  the  average  church  member  that  he  seems 
to  take  no  personal  interest  in  the  spiritual  redemp- 
tion of  his  friends  and  associates  in  the  daily  walks 
of  life.  To  the  onlooker  it  is  thus  made  to  appear 
a  matter  of  no  concern.  If  the  non-religious  world 
is  indifferent  and  skeptical  it  must,  in  a  large  meas- 
ure, be  attributed  to  the  indifference  of  those  who. 


OPPORTUNITIES  OF  THE  WORK        49 

by  their  public  profession  of  faith,  have  proclaimed 
to  the  world  their  belief  in  the  necessity  of  salva- 
tion,— a  necessity  which  they  seemingly  deny  by  their 
silence  and  unconcern. 

The  people  in  a  community  who  are  unacquainted 
with  the  vital  and  saving  element  in  Christian  experi- 
ence would  soon  awake  to  great  concern  regarding 
their  spiritual  state,  were  Christian  people  manifestly 
and  universally  concerned  in  their  behalf.  The  ex- 
tent of  their  interest,  under  present  conditions,  is  a 
marked  tribute  to  the  fact  that  man  is  fundamentally 
religious,  and  that  in  spite  of  his  own  neglect,  world- 
liness,  and  possibly  wilful  sin,  he  is  still  more  inter- 
ested in  problems  of  the  soul  than  in  anything  else. 
His  very  nature  cries  out  for  a  satisfaction  that  he 
does  not  know,  and  which  he  is  intuitively  conscious 
he  ought  to  know.  He  experiences,  even  in  his 
skepticism,  the  soul  hunger  so  vividly  expressed  by 
the  Psalmist  when  he  said :  "  My  heart  and  my  flesh 
cry  out  for  the  living  God." 

It  is  this  fundamental  need  of  the  human  soul  that 
gives  the  personal  worker  his  ceaseless  and  promising 
opportunity.  It  may  always  be  counted  on.  Few 
men  are  so  lost  to  the  claims  of  their  own  manhood, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul,  as  to 
repel  the  approach  of  a  love  that  is  seeking  their 
highest  good.  For  the  most  part  they  are  coveting 
the  interest  of  some  trusted  friend,  who  is  experi- 
enced enough  in  the  things  of  the  Spirit,  to  help 
them  out  of  their  perplexity  and  spiritual  impotence. 


VII 
THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SOUL-WINNING 

THE  word  psychology  is  not  here  used  in  a 
technical  sense.  A  college  professor  or  the 
writer  of  a  text-book  may  limit  the  term 
exclusively  to  the  study  of  mental  phenomena  and 
the  facts  of  consciousness ;  but  to  the  personal  evan- 
gelist— the  winner  of  souls — the  word  soul  includes 
moral  as  well  as  mental  capacity  and  condition.  For 
all  practical  purposes  it  is  synonymous  with  spirit. 
Intellect,  reason,  conscience,  the  affections  and  the 
will  are  all  faculties  of  the  soul,  and,  in  the  realm 
of  morals,  the  religious  psychologist  must  be  an  adept 
in  fathoming,  all  the  hidden  recesses  of  man's  inner- 
most being.  '  Soul-winning  is  impossible  without  the 
capacity  thoroughly  and  accurately  to  diagnose  the 
mental,  moral  and  spiritual  status  of  the  soul  to  be 
won.  The  personal  worker  must  be  able  to  penetrate 
to  the  secret  of  another's  personality,  and  place  him 
in  the  moral  and  spiritual  category  to  which  he  be- 
longs. This  is  the  highest  form  of  psychological 
science.  We  make  no  apology  for  using  the  word 
psychology  in  this  all-inclusive  and  practical  sense. 

The  power  to  know  and  interpret  the  human  soul 
and  spirit  is  preeminently  a  spiritual  enduement. 
"  Things  which  eye  saw  not,  and  ear  heard  not,  and 
which  entered  not  into  the  heart  of  man,"  God  re- 

50 


PSYCHOLOGY    OF    SOUL- WINNING       51 

veals  unto  us  through  the  Spirit :  "  for  the  Spirit 
searcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep  things  of  God.'* 

But  the  deep  things  of  God  include  the  deep  things 
of  man,  for  the  things  which  are  foolishness  to  the 
"  natural  man,"  and  which  he  cannot  know  because 
they  are  spiritually  discerned,  are  so  revealed  to  the 
man  spiritually  renewed  and  enlightened  that  he  can 
''  judge," — discern, — all  things,  while  "  he  himself  is 
judged  (discerned,  understood)  by  no  man." 

In  other  words,  an  intelligent,  spiritually  enlight- 
ened, experienced  Christian  worker  is  able  to  read  his 
fellow-men,  through  and  through,  in  all  their  mental 
attitudes  and  m.oods,  moral  character  and  condition, 
spiritual  impotence  and  need.  He  is  able  to  diagnose 
their  physical  traits  and  inheritance ;  their  intellectual 
limitations  and  gifts ;  their  moral  status,  environment, 
and  training;  their  spiritual  apathy  or  aspiration. 
This  is  psychological  knowledge  and  skill  of  the  high- 
est order. 

In  the  sense  of  soul-knowledge — the  knowledge 
of  all  the  intricate  workings  of  the  human  mind 
and  heart — psychology  is  impossible  without  a 
deep  and  rich  spiritual  experience.  Without  it 
there  are  realms  of  life  which  one  never  fathoms, 
never  even  suspects.  These  are  the  realms  where 
vital  religion  enters,  and  the  soul  finds  communion 
with  God.  Not  to  possess  this  knowledge  incapaci- 
tates one  to  interpret,  in  any  deep  and  fundamental 
way,  the  moral  condition  and  spiritual  quality  of  any 
personality.  Never  is  it  so  true  as  in  dealing  with 
the  innermost  secret  of  the  soul,  either  in  ourselves 
or  others,  that  "  in  his  light  we  see  light."    Jesus  is 


52   MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

not  only  the  effulgence  of  God's  glory,  but,  for  this 
very  reason,  the  effulgence  of  man's  glory. 

Fundamentally,  then,  psychology  is  pneumatology, 
the  most  spiritual  of  all  sciences;  and,  hence,  to  be 
a  psychologist  and  at  the  same  time  unspiritual  or 
non-religious  is  a  contradiction  in  terms.  An  agnos- 
tic, in  the  realm  of  experimental  religion,  occupying 
a  chair  of  Psychology  in  a  higher  school  of  learning, 
is  an  affront  to  human  intelligence  and  need.  He 
who  would  know  man,  must  know  God  in  whose  per- 
fect image  man  is  made.  The  key  to  the  human 
heart  is  won  through  the  renewing  and  enlightening 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  promise  of  Jesus  is 
all-inclusive :  "  When  he  the  Spirit  of  truth  is  come, 
he  shall  guide  you  into  all  truth,"  and  that  this  truth 
and  all  truth  is  personal  is  evident  from  the  added 
words,  "  for  he  shall  take  of  the  things  of  mine  and 
show  them  unto  you." 

The  personality  of  Christ  is  the  key  both  to  the 
knowledge  of  God  and  man,  and  thus  the  key  that 
unlocks  the  secret  of  all  soul  life  and  of  truth,  for, 
be  it  ever  remembered,  truth  is  personal,  and  apart 
from  infinite  and  perfect  personality  can  never  be 
accurately  or  fully  known.  This  is  as  true  in  the 
realm  of  Science  and  Nature  as  in  religion,  for  the 
mathematics  of  Christianity  and  astronomy  and  the 
truths  of  the  material  universe,  stand  for  the  Mind, 
the  Personality  that  Is  back  of  all  existence. 

The  interpreter  of  life  must  be  a  vital  possessor 
of  life,  must  know  life  at  its  source ;  for,  as  the  Mas- 
ter himself  said:  "This  is  life  eternal,  that  they 
should  know  thee  the  only  true  God,  and  him  whom 


PSYCHOLOGY    OF    SOUL-WINNING      53 

thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ."  To  one  thus 
quaUfied  for  personal  evangelism,  by  experience  of 
life,  and  by  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  Author  of 
life,  souls  become  luminous.  Their  moods  and  tem- 
pers, their  sincerities  and  self-deceptions,  their  re- 
sponsiveness or  rebellion,  their  sense  of  need  or  their 
indifference,  and  all  their  varied  subtle,  sullen,  sym- 
pathetiCj  mystic  spiritual  conditions,  are  clearly 
known. 

Nothing  is  more  marvelous  in  the  experience  of  a 
winner  of  souls  than  this  power  to  fathom  the  secret 
of  another  person's  life.  He  is  able  to  unveil  his 
spirit;  interpret  its  moral  quality,  fathom  its  pur- 
pose, follow  with  keenest  intelligence  the  intricacies 
of  its  gropings  and  conflicts,  and  the  changing  nature 
of  its  volitions.  To  assist  a  soul  in  discovering  itself, 
and  to  guide  it  from  spiritual  ignorance  to  spiritual 
knowledge,  and  through  struggle  and  controversy  to 
victory  and  peace,  is  the  most  fascinating,  rewarding, 
masterful,  yea,  most  beneficent  and  blessed  work  on 
earth. 

The  mental  skill,  the  spiritual  intelligence  and  in- 
tuition required  in  such  successful  personal  evangel- 
ism were  never  more  wonderfully  illustrated  than  in 
the  work  of  one  of  the  most  successful  evangelists  of 
all  time,  as  recorded  in  the  following  chapter. 


VIII 
THE  SKILL  OF  A  GREAT  EVANGELIST 

IT  was  the  writer's  privilege,  as  a  theological  stu- 
dent, to  follow  closely  the  method,  spirit  and 
results  of  Dwight  L.  Moody's  notable  evangel- 
istic campaign  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  at  the  time  of  his 
greatest  effectiveness  and  renown.  He  not  only 
studied  into  the  secret  of  his  power  as  a  preacher, 
but  took  special  pains  to  get  close  enough  to  him  in 
his  after  meetings  to  gain  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
his  method  and  skill  in  personal  work.  Although  he 
was  not  technically  a  scholar,  and  had  had  no  oppor- 
tunity for  scientific  training  in  psychology,  it  is  no 
exaggeration  to  say  that  few  men  in  the  world  have 
had  a  deeper,  keener,  truer  insight  of  human  nature 
than  he.  His  intuitive  knowledge  of  men  in  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  society  was  surprisingly  re- 
markable. He  read  men,  almost  instantly,  through 
and  through.  He  seemed  to  see  the  uncovered 
human  soul.  His  questionings  speedily  determined 
whether  an  inquirer  was  sincere  and  genuine  or  hypo- 
critical and  evasive.  With  astonishing  rapidity  he 
could  turn  a  man,  mentally  and  morally,  inside  out; 
expose  his  fallacies,  moral  inconsistencies,  perver- 
sions, wilfulness  and  alienation  from  God.  His 
work,  both  psychologically  and  spiritually,  was 
searching,  profound,  accurate,  masterful. 

94 


SKILL  OF  A  GREAT  EVANGELIST      55 

The  secret  of  his  power  lay  not  in  his  exceptional 
natural  gifts,  but  in  his  marvelous  spiritual  insight, 
gained  from  his  regenerate  experience  as  a  Christian, 
from  his  wonderful  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and 
from  his  intimate  and  prolonged  study  of  the  inner- 
most life  of  his  fellow-men.  By  his  skill  as  a  per- 
sonal worker  and  winner  of  men  he  demonstrated  the 
inseparable  unity  of  the  mental  and  moral  life,  and 
that  it  is  impossible,  in  any  profound  and  accurate 
sense,  to  know  a  man  mentally  without  first  knowing 
his  moral  status,  and  his  relation  to  the  character  and 
will  of  God. 

This  lesson  is  one  of  D.  L.  Moody's  most  notable 
contributions  to  the  religious  life  of  his  generation. 
He  demonstrated,  experimentally,  the  unity  of  man 
in  all  the  attributes  of  his  personality,  and  in  all  the 
activities  of  his  mental,  moral  and  spiritual  being. 
He  proved  the  indissoluble  partnership  of  the  mental 
and  moral  life,  and  that  psychology  is  superficial  and 
inadequate  except  as  it  is  based  on  the  deeper  in- 
sights of  spiritual  knowledge  and  experience  (pneu- 
matology).  In  other  words,  the  moral  and  spiritual 
life  are  so  linked  up  with  the  mental  that  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  former  is  essential  to  a  thorough  and 
worthy  knowledge  of  the  latter.  Mr.  Moody  fath- 
omed the  mental  processes  of  his  fellow-men  because, 
with  an  almost  infallible  accuracy,  he  could  discern 
the  motives,  moral  character  and  spiritual  conditions 
that  lay  back  of  them. 

This  deeper  psychology  accounts  for  the  thorough- 
ness and  permanence  of  his  work.  Appearances  did 
not  deceive  him.    Wealth,  learning  and  external  cul- 


56    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

ture  did  not  mislead  or  intimidate  him.  He  could 
say  to  any  man  of  eminence,  if  not  confessedly  and 
vitally  a  Christian,  as  Jesus  said  to  Nicodemus,  "  Ye 
must  be  born  again."  He  was  so  deeply  versed  in 
the  subtleties,  pride  and  self-deceptions  of  the  human 
heart  that  he  knew  its  strange,  inherent,  fatal  aliena- 
tion from  the  will  of  God,  apart  from  the  renewing 
and  creative  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  Jesus 
defined  as  regenerative  or  the  "  new  birth."  As  a 
result,  people  converted  under  his  preaching  experi- 
enced a  radical  moral  revolution,  through  the  creative 
power  of  a  genuine  spiritual  renewal.  Mr.  Moody 
gave  a  new  vitality  to  the  religious  life  of  his  genera- 
tion in  two  continents,  and  his  name  will  stand  per- 
manently among  the  greatest  spiritual  leaders  of 
modern  history. 

To  know  men  is  better  than  to  know  books  on 
psychology.  One  hour  at  close  grips  with  an  inquir- 
ing, or  agnostic,  or  rebellious,  or  skeptical  soul  will 
teach  one  more  of  the  inner  workings  of  the  human 
mind  and  spirit  than  can  ever  be  learned  from  the 
mere  study  of  a  technical  science.  The  more  of  ac- 
curate scholarship  the  better,  but  lacking  the  illumi- 
nation of  spirit  which  comes  through  the  processes 
of  spiritual  renewal,  the  ablest  mind  is  incapable  of 
fathoming  the  true  status  of  the  human  soul. 

The  Church  can  never  lose  its  hold  on  these  vital 
realities  without  loss  of  its  renewing  and  transform- 
ing power.  There  are  phases  of  modern  church  life 
that  are  very  assuring — the  growing  breadth  and 
heartiness  of  its  fraternal  spirit,  its  organized  activi- 
ties,  its   enlarging  benevolence,   its   increasing  con- 


SKILL  OF  A  GREAT  EVANGELIST      57 

sciousness  of  its  spiritual  deficiencies.  Other  phases 
of  its  life,  however,  call  for  serious  and  prayerful 
study — its  failure  to  deepen  the  devotional  and  spir- 
itual life  of  its  members,  its  neglect  of  family  wor- 
ship, its  spiritual  barrenness  as  seen  in  its  inability 
to  reproduce  an  able  and  adequate  ministry,  its  loss 
of  conviction  as  to  the  necessity  of  a  universal  human 
redemption,  its  avoidance  of  the  New  Testament  doc- 
trine of  sin,  of  the  cross,  and  of  the  new  birth. 

The  passion  for  souls  that  gave  birth  to  the  great 
reformers  and  evangelists  of  the  past,  from  Paul  to 
Luther,  from  Luther  to  Knox,  Wesley  and  White- 
field,  and  from  Whitefield  to  D.  L.  Moody,  that  in- 
spired the  majestic  hymnology  of  the  Church,  that 
created  modern  missions,  and  sent  the  throb  of 
divine  love  into  all  lands  through  countless  heralds 
of  the  cross,  is  the  passion  that  can  never  die  if  the 
Church  is  to  live  and  penetrate  all  human  institutions 
■with  its  moral  ideals,  its  spiritual  energy,  its  recrea- 
tive and  saving  power. 

Jesus'  personaHty  has  indeed  become  the  center  of 
human  thought  as  in  no  former  age,  but  in  spite  of 
this  its  recent  teaching  is  not  laying  emphasis  where 
he  laid  it,  on  the  universal  sinfulness  of  man  and 
the  need  of  divine  grace  for  his  salvation.  The 
church  of  to-day  can  recover  its  spiritual  vision  and 
its  passion  for  souls  only  by  putting  the  third  chap- 
ter of  John's  gospel  at  the  very  forefront  of  its 
preaching.  The  heart  of  Christ's  teaching  is  here. 
Here  the  story  of  man's  need  and  of  God's  redeem- 
ing love  is  best  told.     Here  from  Jesus'  own  lips 


"58    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

came  the  glad  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  renewing 
and  saving  work. 

Add  these  deeper  truths,  convictions  and  experi- 
ences to  the  splendid  organization,  equipment  and 
enterprise  of  the  church  of  to-day  and  it  would 
sweep  round  the  world  with  resistless  power.  Other 
institutions  and  agencies,  even  in  the  political  and 
commercial  world,  would  bow  to  its  moral  supremacy 
and  leadership.  The  enlightened  and  redeemed  na- 
tions would  acknowledge  the  folly  and  crime  of  war, 
the  wickedness  and  failure  of  unrighteousness,  hatred 
and  strife  in  every  realm  of  life,  and  the  prayer 
taught  by  the  Divine  Master  would  be  answered  in 
the  coming  of  His  Kingdom  and  the  doing  of  His 
will  here  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven. 


IX 

SOUL-WINNING  AS  AN  ART 

A  Chapter  Especially  for  Pastors 

|^^>|APACITY  to  approach  people  of  every  class 
%.  A  ^^^  condition;  utterly  diverse  in  tempera- 
ment, training,  inheritance  and  moral  char- 
acter, and  accurately  interpret  them,  making  them 
acquainted  with  their  own  spiritual  needs  and  win- 
ning them  to  a  complete  and  hearty  acceptance  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  is  not  only  an  art,  but  a 
gift.  Some  people  are  incapacitated  by  nature  for 
so  keen  and  delicate  a  task.  They  lack  tempera- 
mental ability  to  read  men.  No  amount  of  training 
could  give  them  psychological  skill.  Others  are  en- 
dued with  a  subtle  intuition  that  can  penetrate  to  the 
secret  of  another's  thought,  purpose,  character.  This 
skill  is  essential  to  eminent  success  in  the  practice  of 
medicine.  The  physician  who  would  accurately  di- 
agnose disease  must  be  able  to  read  his  patient 
through  and  through,  taking  into  account  all  the  sub- 
tle differences  of  inheritance,  nervous  temperament 
and  mental  moods.  To  become  a  masterly  salesman 
one  must  be  able,  in  like  manner,  to  adjust  himself 
to  all  the  unique  and  diverse  characteristics  of  the 
men  he  meets  in  travel  and  trade.  A  teacher  is  an 
affliction  to  a  generation  of  young  people  in  school 
or  college  who  cannot  distinguish  with  an  infallible 

59 


60    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN  ' 

and  loving  sympathy  the  different  natures  upon  which 
he  works.  He  should  be  able  to  deal  with  each  pupil 
on  the  basis  of  his  own  individual  temperament, 
mental  endowment,  natural  tastes  and  tendencies. 

But  if  an  intuitive  skill,  that  can  penetrate  to  the 
secret  of  another's  individuality,  is  essential  to  these 
so-called  secular  vocations,  what  shall  be  said  of  the 
need  of  it  in  the  divine  art  of  ministering  to  the 
deepest  needs  of  the  soul.  More  than  a  natural  gift 
is  imperative  here.  The  human  spirit  that  would  be- 
come masterful  in  dealing  with  the  innermost  life  of 
one's  fellow-men  must  receive  special  enduement 
from  on  high.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  divine 
illumination  through  the  power  and  in-dwelling  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  St.  Paul  affirmed  this  special  en- 
duement when  he  said :  "  We  received,  not  the  spirit 
of  the  world,  but  the  Spirit  which  is  from  God ;  that 
we  might  know  the  things  that  were  freely  given  to 
us  of  God.  Which  things  we  speak,  not  in  words 
which  man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Spirit 
teacheth." 

A  person  thus  gifted  by  nature  and  endued  by 
the  Spirit  soon  acquires  exceptional  skill  in  dealing 
with  the  intricate  problems  and  perplexities  of  the 
human  soul.  Practice  rapidly  perfects  him  in  the 
art  of  soul  guidance  and  soul  winning.  He  develops 
an  alertness  of  mind  unknown  in  any  other  of  his 
mental  processes.  The  desire  for  conquest  in  this 
keen  process  of  mental  co-operation,  competition  or 
controversy;  the  intense  eagerness  of  Christian  love 
to  save  the  reluctant  or  inquiring  soul ;  the  passion 
of  Christ  in  him  which  makes  him  affectionately  per- 


SOUL-WINNING  AS  AN  ABT  61 

sistent  in  seeking  and  saving  that  which  is  lost,  oper- 
ate on  his  mind  and  heart  like  an  inspiration  from  on 
high.  Who  shall  say  that  in  such  ardent  personal 
evangelism  one  is  not  specially  guided,  illuminated, 
empowered  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  certainly  is 
lifted  above  his  ordinary  vision  and  ability  in  such 
heart  to  heart  work.  His  mind  springs  to  its  task 
with  the  conscious  strength  and  assurance  of  the 
athlete.  It  anticipates  every  inquiry  and  want  of  the 
seeker  after  truth,  and  every  objection  of  the  one 
who  is  resisting  the  claims  of  the  Master  and  the 
leadings  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Conscious  power,  a 
growing  sense  of  spiritual  intelligence  and  masterful- 
ness, increasing  accuracy  of  intuition,  as  well  as  an 
ever-increasing  joy  in  the  work,  are  the  sure  rewards 
of  persistence  and  fidelity  in  the  effort  to  win  souls 
to  a  saving  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  as  their  per- 
sonal Saviour. 

Faithful,  persistent,  universally  applied  pastoral 
work  makes  a  far  more  profound  spiritual  impres- 
sion on  a  community  than  the  most  earnest  preach- 
ing. The  best  audience  a  soul-winner  can  have  is  an 
audience  of  one.  Every  word  then  has  directness 
and  meaning.  It  cannot  be  evaded.  If  an  impeni- 
tent man  comes  to  feel  that  you  are  ceaselessly  anx- 
ious about  his  spiritual  condition,  he  cannot  avoid 
becoming  anxious  about  himself.  Half  the  battle  is 
won  when  a  person  becomes  solicitous  concerning  his 
own  spiritual  welfare.  He  is  then  accessible  to  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  up  to  this  mo- 
ment of  concern,  he  has  either  ignored  or  resisted. 
As  John  the  Baptist  was  the  forerunner  of  Jesus, 


62    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

so  any  wise  and  worthy  Qiristian  may  be  the  fore- 
runner of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  an  unconverted  and  im- 
penitent soul.  By  his  own  approach  and  appeal,  he 
prepares  the  way  of  the  Lord. 

Such  pastoral  work,  if  wisely  and  faithfully  done, 
begets  universal  respect  and  love  on  the  part  of  the 
people.  They  soon  discover  that  their  minister  is 
their  best  friend,  devoted  soul  and  body  to  their  high- 
est good.  His  views  modify  or  become  their  views. 
They  begin  to  see  through  his  eyes,  and  to  feel  the 
pulse-beat  of  his  spiritual  life.  The  sentiment  of  an 
entire  community  thus  gradually  and  unconsciously 
changes.  The  conviction  becomes  prevalent  that  re- 
ligion is  after  all  a  very  vital  thing,  and  that  a  person 
must  (to  use  a  time-worn  phrase)  experience  religion 
if  he  would  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  In  other 
words,  it  is  possible  by  persistent  and  wisely  con- 
ducted pastoral  work  to  create  throughout  an  entire 
community  the  conviction  that  every  man,  woman 
and  child  in  the  community  needs  to  be  saved.  The 
supreme  difficulty  in  a  great  city  is  to  create  this 
community  im.pression.  The  smaller  the  parish  the 
greater  the  opportunity  for  personal  work,  and  thus 
the  greater  the  possibility  of  a  widespread  popular 
conviction  of  need.  The  young  man  who  desires  to 
step  at  once  into  a  city  pastorate  is  likely  to  lose  the 
supreme  opportunity  of  his  life  for  spiritual  effect- 
iveness and  growth,  and  for  mastering  a  knowledge 
of  men  and  the  truth  that  will  transform  and  redeem 
them.  Next  to  the  diligent  study  of  God's  Word, 
the  most  rewarding  work  in  the  world  is  the  diligent 
study  of  the  spiritual  state  of  individual  men.     It 


SOUL-WINNING  AS  AN  ART  63 

marvelously  quickens  the  intellect,  compels  directness 
and  clearness  of  statement,  teaches  one  how  to  make 
truth  personal,  acts  as  a  tonic  to  faith,  aids  better 
than  all  the  commentaries  in  the  world  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  Bible,  brings  into  clear  vision  all  the 
secret  conditions  and  processes  of  the  human  soul, 
makes  preaching  personal,  passionate,  prophetic. 

Five  years  of  this  specific  personal  evangelism  pre- 
pared an  entire  community  for  a  deep  and  far-reach- 
ing work  of  grace.  No  eminent  evangelist  was 
needed  to  secure  a  revival.  The  revival,  anticipated 
by  no  one,  was  gradually  taking  place  in  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  the  people.  It  only  required  the  call- 
ing of  the  community  together  for  extra  services  dur- 
ing the  annual  week  of  prayer  in  mid-winter,  to  give 
this  latent  popular  feeling  a  chance  to  blossom  into 
vital  expression  in  public  confession  and  definite  re- 
ligious choice  and  action.  It  became  a  veritable 
Pentecost,  coming  down  quietly  and  effectively,  upon 
half  a  township.  Blizzards,  snow-drifts  and  zero 
weather  could  not  keep  the  people  from  flocking  to 
the  house  of  God.  Scores  and  hundreds  were  con- 
verted. It  was  no  wave  of  superficial  sentiment,  but 
a  deep  and  quiet  work  of  grace,  due  to  an  intelligent 
consideration  of  life's  fundamental  problems  in  the 
light  of  God's  Word  and  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Whole  households,  including  grandparents, 
parents  and  children,  gave  themselves  in  prayer  to 
God  and  made  public  confession  of  their  faith.  The 
adult  population,  as  well  as  practically  all  the  young 
people,  gave  evidence  of  genuine  conversion  and 
spiritual  renewal.    People  in  the  seventies  and  in  the 


64    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

eighties,  and  one  aged  person  of  ninety-two,  came 
as  little  children  to  the  Lord's  table  and  made  con- 
fession of  Christ  as  their  Saviour.  Family  altars 
sprang  up,  under  pastoral  guidance  and  help,  in 
many  homes.  Saloons  and  places  of  cheap  amuse- 
ment were  closed  through  lack  of  patronage.  The 
moral  tone  of  society  changed.  The  wholesome  effect 
was  apparent  to  surrounding  communities.  Visitors 
and  traveling  salesmen  exclaimed  at  the  moral  trans- 
formation of  the  people.  The  prevalent  skepticism 
of  the  former  generation  silently  disappeared  as 
snow  dissolves  under  the  genial  warmth  of  the  re- 
turning sun.  Two  village  churches  each  added 
nearly  one  hundred  to  their  membership.  The  re- 
generating effect  of  this  work  of  grace  was  perma- 
nent in  the  lives  of  individuals  and  in  the  township 
at  large.  The  religious  lapses  that  follow  many  re- 
vivals did  not,  in  any  known  instance,  occur.  The 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  so  manifest  in  this 
marvelous  movement  and  in  the  lives  of  the  people 
that  lifelong  skeptics  made  acknowledgment  of  its 
divine  reality.  After  nearly  four  decades  the  fruit- 
age of  that  spiritual  harvest  is  still  visible  in  the  com- 
munity, and  the  work  of  grace  then  wrought  was 
duplicated  in  a  similar  revival  twenty  years  later. 

The  opportunities  that  come  to  a  Christian  worker 
in  such  a  widespread  movement  are  innumerable,  and 
the  experience  gained  in  close  spiritual  converse  with 
households  and  individuals  furnishes  an  ideal  and  a 
demonstration,  and  becomes  a  spiritual  asset  that 
directs  and  strengthens  the  work  of  all  the  subse^ 
quent  years. 


THE  EVANGELISM  OF  THE  APOSTLES 

THE  apostles   learned   their  evangelism   from 
Jesus.     Before  they  were  at  all  qualified 
for  their  work  he  found  it  necessary  to  im- 
press upon  them,  by  oft-repeated  instruction,  many 
fundamental  truths  which  they  were  slow  to  com- 
prehend: 

V  I.  The  infinite  worth  of  the  human  soul.  Com- 
mon humanity  had  never  been  appreciated  until 
Jesus  came.  He  told  his  disciples  that  no  material 
wealth,  however  great,  could  for  one  moment  com- 
pare in  value  with  a  single  human  life,  and  that  if  a 
man  should  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  soul 
^e  had  lost  everything. 

{  2.  The  inestimable  value  of  a  child.  So  little  did 
the  chosen  twelve  appreciate  the  spiritual  worth  and 
possibilities  of  young  children  that  they  indignantly 
refused  to  let  parents  bring  them  to  Jesus,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  rebuke  them  with  great  severity, 
saying :  "  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me ; 
forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  "Except  ye  be  converted  and  become  as 
little  children,  ye  cannot  enter  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  "  It  would  be  far  better  to  be  drowned  in 
the  depths  of  the  sea  than  cause  one  of  these  little 
ones  to  stumble." 

05 


66    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 


r. 


3.  The  need  of  ceaseless  and  intimate  spiritual 
union  with  Christ.  ]"  Ahidt  in  me."  "Without  me 
ye.  can  do  nothing."' 

(^4.  The  need  of  a  special  enduement  of  power 
through  the  baptism  and  indwelling  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  They  were  not  to  venture  forth  upon  their 
apostolic  career  until  they  had  received  this  endue- 
ment. 

Equipped  with  these  instructions  and  assurances  of 
divine  aid,  the  apostles  began  their  work  with  super- 
natural power.  Conscious,  after  long  discipline  and 
oft-repeated  failure,  of  their  spiritual  impotence,  they 
waited  in  prayer  for  the  promise  of  the  Father. 
Pentecost  was  its  fulfillment.  Energized  in  mind  and 
spirit,  from  on  high,  they  preached  the  love  and 
power  of  the  risen  Christ  with  flaming  tongues  and 
passionate  hearts.  Their  testimony  in  a  score  of  dif- 
ferent languages  and  their  eloquent  preaching  stirred 
Jerusalem  from  center  to  circumference.  Thousands 
were  converted,  on  that  first  wondrous  day,  to  the 
new  faith  and  entered  the  membership  of  the  newly 
organized  church.  They  did  personal  work  every- 
where, even  in  prison,  making  a  convert  of  the  jailer 
and  his  entire  family. 

Even  before  Pentecost,  soon  after  receiving  their 
call  to  discipleship,  the  apostles  were  instructed  in 
these  effective  methods  of  work.  They  were  sent 
out,  two  by  two,  on  extended  missions  of  instruction 
and  soul-winning.  They  were  commissioned  by  Jesus 
to  go  from  house  to  house,  from  city  to  city,  pro- 
claiming the  good  news  of  the  kingdom.  They  must 
be  ready  for  suffering  and  sacrifice,  and  even  for 


EVANGELISM  OF  THE  APOSTLES       67 

martyrdom,  and  must  be  bold  to  confess  their  Lord 
before  rulers  and  men  everywhere.  By  teaching, 
preaching,  and  personal  appeal  they  were  to  win 
disciples  of  all  nations.  The  chosen  twelve  were 
themselves,  in  the  very  origin  and  constitution  of 
their  apostolic  band,  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
power  of  personal  work.  They  had  won  each  other, 
one  by  one,  to  an  acceptance  of  the  Lordship  of  Jesus. 
Disciples  multiplied  through  the  zeal  and  personal 
witness  of  those  who  had  found  the  secret  of  the 
new  life. 

The  apostles  who  began  their  ministry  in  Jeru- 
salem and  extended  it  to  all  the  regions  round  about, 
Judaea,  Samaria,  and  Galilee,  ultimately  became 
world-evangelists.  Their  original  commission  neces- 
sitated missionary  enterprise  on  a  widely  extended 
scale.  They  were  to  make  disciples  of  all  nations, 
going  even  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  If 
tradition  can  be  trusted,  they  did  this  with  great 
heroism  and  sacrifice:  Peter  carried  the  gospel  to 
Rome,  John  to  Asia  Minor,  Thomas  to  India,  An- 
drew to  Scythia,  Philip  to  Phrygia,  Bartholomew  to 
Parthia,  Matthew  to  Ethiopia  and  possibly  Mace- 
donia, and  Thaddeus  to  Syria.  The  very  existence 
of  these  traditions,  even  if  they  cannot  all  be  verified, 
proves  the  far-reaching  influence  and  work  of  these 
divinely  commissioned  men.  But  the  work  thus 
dimly  outlined  in  the  apocryphal  writings  of  the  early 
Christian  centuries  became,  in  the  apostolic  career  of 
Paul,  a  majestic  historic  certainty.  His  evangelistic 
ministry  covered,  in  three  prolonged  and  extended 
tours,  the  principal  cities  and  provinces  of  western 


68    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

Asia,  Macedonia,  and  Greece,  culminating  in  Rome, 
the  renowned  capital  of  the  world. 

As  regards  method,  theme,  spirit  and  aim,  Paul  is 
the  pattern  for  all  effective  and  ideal  evangelism. 
Never  a  man  had  a  greater  devotion  to  Christ,  a 
surer  intellectual  grasp  of  the  processes  and  princi- 
ples of  spiritual  experience  and  redemption,  a  pro- 
founder  experimental  knowledge  of  the  law  of  the 
spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  or  a  greater  passion  for 
souls.  He  was  a  constructive  statesman  in  the  King- 
dom of  God,  a  brilliant  and  masterful  expounder  of 
Christian  truth,  a  philosopher,  prophet,  and  seer.  He 
used  voice  and  pen  alike  in  instruction  and  personal 
appeal.  He  traversed  continents  to  win  men  to 
Christ;  he  wrote  letters  to  individuals  and  churches 
to  instruct  them  in  doctrine  and  in  the  principles  of 
Christian  living ;  his  one  theme  was,  "  Jesus  Christ, 
and  him  crucified,"  and  his  one  aim,  to  save  men  and 
penetrate  society  and  all  human  institutions  with  the 
teachings  and  spirit  of  his  Master.  He  was  as 
ardent,  enthusiastic,  and  happy  in  making  a  Christian 
convert  of  young  Timothy  as  in  establishing  a  church 
in  some  great  metropolis.  He  gave  himself  as  whole- 
heartedly to  saving  a  runaway  slave  as  in  founding 
Christian  communities  in  Ephesus,  Colossae,  Corinth, 
or  Rome. 

Back  of  the  constructive  processes  of  the  modern 
centuries  in  Europe,  and  in  all  this  western  hemi- 
sphere, lie  the  spiritual  passion  and  constructive 
statesmanship  of  the  great  apostle.  The  currents  of 
life  that  flowed  in  such  mighty  volume  from  his  conse- 
crated soul  are  still  sweeping  around  the  world  with 


EVANGELISM  OF  THE  APOSTLES      6^ 

ever-increasing  momentum.  Apostolic  evangelism 
made  modern  history,  and  just  in  proportion  as  the 
preachers,  teachers,  and  apostles  of  to-day  proclaim 
the  same  redemptive  gospel,  and  have  the  same  pas- 
sion for  saving  men  and  reconstructing  society  ac- 
cording to  the  principles  and  purpose  of  Jesus,  the 
[world  will  go  on  in  its  progress  toward  the  ultimate 
perfection  and  brotherhood  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


PART  II 
A  SPIRITUAL  CLINIC 

Some  Notable  Conversions  and  Experiences 

XI 

THE  MIRACLE  OF  REGENERATION 

NO  facts  in  physical  science  are  more  capable 
of  indisputable  demonstration  than  the 
spiritual  miracle  of  the  new  birth.  Jesus 
compared  the  mysterious  process  to  the  invisible 
wind,  "  which  bloweth  where  it  will,  and  thou  hear- 
est  the  sound  thereof,  but  knowest  not  whence  it 
cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth ;  so  is  every  one  that  is 
born  of  the  Spirit."  The  unseen  wind  is  heard,  its 
tremendous  power  felt,  and  its  effects  definitely 
known;  and  just  as  definitely  does  the  invisible  work 
of  God's  creative  Spirit  become  manifest  in  the  out- 
ward life  of  all  who  are  vitally  renewed  and  trans- 
formed by  His  power.  Regeneration  is  not  a  natural 
process,  but  a  supernatural.  This  can  be  better  illus- 
trated in  actual  life  than  in  the  clearest  attempt  at 
verbal  description. 

During  the  remarkable  revival  referred  to  in  a 
preceding  chapter,  which  changed  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious character  of  an  entire  community,  a  certain 
man  resisted  with  bitterness  and  anger  the  influences, 
human  and  divine,  that  were  pressing  upon  his  mind, 

70 


MIRACLE  OF  REGENERATION  71 

heart  and  conscience  for  decision.  He  was  a  man 
of  business  and  social  standing  in  the  village,  being 
treasurer  of  the  local  bank,  postmaster,  and  also  pro- 
prietor of  a  substantial  store.  He  had  a  devoted  wife 
and  two  beautiful  boys;  yet  for  some  hidden  reason 
was  antagonistic  to  and  rebellious  against  the  truth 
that  sought  his  conversion. 

At  the  close  of  an  exceptionally  impressive  service, 
in  which  mature  men  and  women  were  giving  them- 
selves to  God,  he  said  to  his  pastor :  "  I  wish  you 
would  never  speak  to  me  on  the  subject  of  religion 
again."  The  latter  replied :  "  We  do  not  intend  to 
bore  you  with  this  matter,  but  you  tremendously  need 
God,  and  we  shall  not  cease  to  pray  for  your 
salvation." 

Not  long  after  this,  this  man  suddenly  disappeared. 
Not  even  his  wife  and  most  intimate  friends  knew 
where  he  had  gone.  His  affairs  were  put  in  the 
hands  of  a  receiver.  It  was  found  that  he  had  em- 
bezzled money  from  the  bank  of  which  he  was  treas- 
urer, from  the  post-office  under  his  care,  and  that  he 
had  also  borrowed  substantial  sums  from  friends  who 
confided  in  his  integrity.  In  all  he  had  absconded 
with  a  total  of  several  thousand  dollars.  After  a 
month  of  investigation  his  business  was  declared 
bankrupt.  His  whereabouts  remained  unknown,  and 
owing  to  the  strange  silence  and  mystery,  it  was  sus- 
pected that  he  might  have  committed  suicide. 

This  experience,  so  utterly  distressing  to  his  family 
and  friends,  continued  for  about  six  weeks,  when  all 
unexpectedly  he  returned.  He  came  directly  to  his 
pastor  and  unburdened  his  heart  in  a  full  and  frank 


72   MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

confession.  He  had  escaped  to  Canada,  in  order  to 
avoid  capture  and  the  clutch  of  the  law.  One  night, 
oppressed  with  the  burden  of  his  sin  and  guilt,  he 
passed  a  store  in  which  he  saw  an  illuminated  motto 
with  words  which  said  in  substance,  "  All  sin  may  be 
forgiven."  Like  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is 
the  Word  of  God,  their  message  brought  instant  con- 
viction to  his  wayward  and  rebellious  soul.  He  has- 
tened to  his  hotel  room,  fell  on  his  knees,  and  gave 
himself  to  God.  The  next  morning  he  bought  a  rail- 
road ticket  and  started  for  home.  As  just  related, 
he  first  went  to  his  pastor,  fully  aware  that  the  one 
who  had  so  persistently  sought  his  salvation  was, 
next  to  God  and  his  devoted  wife,  his  best  friend. 
He  unbosomed  the  full  story  of  his  wrong.  The 
battle  in  his  soul  had  been  so  fierce  that,  as  he  said, 
"  it  was  either  surrender  or  suicide,  and  he  decided 
to  surrender." 

He  voluntarily  came  before  the  Church  committee, 
made  the  same  unreserved  confession,  and  asked  the 
privilege  of  uniting  with  the  Church  and  publicly 
acknowledging  Christ  as  his  Saviour.  No  one  ob- 
jected to  such  action  except  the  man  who  had  audited 
his  accounts  and  was  fully  conversant  with  the  nature 
and  extent  of  his  wrongdoing.  He  found  it  impos- 
sible to  believe  in  his  sincerity  and  in  the  genuineness 
of  his  conversion,  suspecting  that  he  was  taking  this 
course  in  order  to  avoid  the  penalties  of  the  law.  It 
was  evident,  however,  to  the  other  members  of  the 
committee  that  the  Spirit  of  God  had  wrought  his 
wondrous   miracle   of   renewal   and   change   in   this 


MIRACLE  OF  REGENERATION  73 

man's  life,  and  that  he  should  be  cordially  received 
into  the  fellowship  of  Christian  believers. 

Results  proved  the  wisdom  of  this  decision,  as  well 
as  the  mighty  power  of  God  in  re-creating  the  inner 
life  of  a  penitent  soul.  For  twenty  years  he  re- 
mained in  the  community  to  witness  to  the  reality  of 
this  supernatural  work.  The  change  in  his  spirit, 
temper  and  quality  of  life,  in  his  relation  to  God  and 
man,  was  so  remarkable;  the  genuineness  of  his  re- 
ligious experience  so  universally  recognized,  that  it 
was  not  long  before  he  was  reinstated  in  the  full  con- 
fidence of  his  fellow-townsmen.  In  due  time  he  was 
elected  superintendent  of  the  Sunday  School  and 
deacon  of  the  very  church  in  which  he  had  mani- 
fested such  antagonism  to  the  truth  and  to  the  Spirit 
of  God.  What  is  even  more  remarkable,  his  former 
business  associates  and  friends,  who  had  known  of 
his  embezzlements,  expressed  their  undoubted  confi- 
dence in  his  regeneration  and  in  the  integrity  of  his 
Christian  character  by  again  electing  him  treasurer 
of  the  bank  that  he  had  defrauded,  and  postmaster 
of  the  office  that  he  had  robbed. 

Until  the  day  of  his  death  he  was  a  living  witness 
to  the  wonders  and  power  of  that  miracle  which 
Jesus  said  was  the  fundamental  necessity  of  the 
human  heart,  and  which  he  defined  in  the  familiar 
words :  "  Except  one  be  born  anew,  he  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God." 

Such  reconstructions  of  human  life  are  not  possible 
by  any  natural  process  or  power.  When  one  is 
actually  "  born  again  "  he  is  "  not  born  of  blood,  nor 
of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but 


'74    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

of  God  " ;  or,  as  other  Scripture  puts  it,  he  is  "  be- 
gotten again,  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but  of  incor- 
ruptible, through  the  Word  of  God,  which  liveth  and 
abideth  forever." 

Sometimes  a  generation  wearies  of  the  terminology 
of  former  generations,  and  in  doing  so  unwittingly 
reacts  from  the  truth  embodied  in  the  earlier  manner 
of  speech.  To  many  "  regeneration  "  is  such  an  out- 
worn and  theologically  abused  term,  yet  it  is  one  of 
the  great  classic  words  that  has  no  modern  equiva- 
lent, no  worthy  and  adequate  substitute.  Whether 
the  Church  retains  this  time-honoured  term  or  its 
literal  counterpart,  "  born  again,"  it  must  ever  keep 
the  truth  contained  therein,  vital  in  its  faith  and 
spiritual  work.  Men  lose  their  passion  for  humanity 
when  they  lose  confidence  in  the  reality  and  in  the 
universal  necessity  of  this  wondrous  miracle  of  grace. 

"  Except  one  be  born  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God." 


XII 
STORMING  THE  CITADEL  OF  THE  WILL 

CONVERSION  in  the  case  of  a  mature  person 
is  the  voluntary  action  of  the  will.  It  is  a 
deliberate  turning,  choice,  decision,  surren- 
der, acceptance.  The  heart  that  has  resisted  says, 
"  I  will."  It  is  no  superficial  emotion  or  desire,  but 
a  fundamental  and  determined  purpose.  It  is  putting 
Jesus  Christ  on  the  throne  of  one's  being.  It  is  the 
obedience  of  man's  will  to  God's  will ;  the  acceptance 
of  the  lifelong  guidance  and  authority  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  He  speaks  to  the  soul  through  the  inspired 
Word.  It  is  the  summoning  of  one's  entire  mind, 
heart,  and  spirit  to  an  unreserved  and  permanent 
allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour,  Lord,  and 
Master. 

Conversion  is  thus  the  most  supreme  act  of  self- 
mastery  known  to  human  experience.  No  man  knows 
the  meaning  of  self-conquest  until  he  has  himself 
well  enough  in  hand  to  say  "  I  will  "  to  God's  call, 
command,  invitation,  and  ideal.  This  act  of  self- 
command  involves  the  surrender  of  all  known  evil, 
potentially  and  by  voluntary  choice.  It  is  not  a  half- 
hearted or  partial  process.  It  is  the  renunciation  of 
everything  known  to  be  contrary  to  God's  righteous 
will.  It  challenges  every  form  of  self-love  and  love 
of  the  world.    It  is  a  fundamental  reversal  and  over- 

75 


76    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

turning  of  all  the  tendencies  of  the  unsanctified  mind 
and  heart.  And  this  is  why  conversion  is  often  so 
long  delayed  and  resisted,  and  the  longer  it  is  post- 
poned the  more  self-reliant  and  insubordinate  be- 
comes the  human  will. 

No  battlefield  in  the  world  calls  for  such  heroism, 
strength,  struggle,  and  self-command  as  the  battle- 
field of  the  human  soul  in  the  process  of  conversion. 
He  who  conquers  here  can  face  any  foe  and  endure 
any  martyrdom.  When  the  issues  have  become  clear 
and  decision  imperative,  the  spiritual  conflict  is  a 
splendid,  awful  fight  for  one's  soul,  manhood,  life. 

A  certain  individual,  intimately  known  by  the 
writer,  who  illustrated  conspicuously  and  character- 
istically this  conflict  of  the  will,  was  in  the  mature 
strength  of  an  exceptionally  vigorous  manhood.  He 
was  no  subordinate  in  a  large  business,  but  accus- 
tomed to  command  and  to  have  men  do  his  bidding 
without  questioning  or  delay.  His  energy  was  the 
moving  power  of  the  whole  vast  enterprise.  He  was 
not  accustomed  to  take  orders  from  any  one,  and 
when  it  came  to  the  question  of  accepting  the  au- 
thority of  Jesus  Christ  as  promptly  and  fully  as  he 
expected  others  to  accept  his,  it  was  found  to  be  no 
easy  process.  However,  at  the  beginning  he  was  not 
aware  of  the  secret  of  his  difficulty. 

After  years  of  intimacy  and  introductory  personal 
work,  his  pastor  visited  his  home  one  Sunday  after- 
noon determined,  if  possible,  with  the  help  of  God,  to 
secure  a  definite  decision.     His  initial  words  were 

these :    "  Mr.  ,  you  are  a   clear-cut  business 

man  and  always  come  directly  to  the  point  in  every 


THE  CITADEL  OF  THE  WILL  77 

business  transaction,  and  I  want  to  put  to  you  a  very- 
direct  and  personal  question — *  Why  are  you  not  a 
Christian?'  He  replied,  'I  do  not  know/"  This 
seemed  strange  for  so  intelligent  a  man,  clean  in  his 
moral  life,  perfectly  upright  in  business,  a  regular 
attendant  at  church,  and  a  man  who  had  been  trained 
from  childhood  religiously.  It  was  evident  that  he 
must  interpret  the  man's  inner  life  to  himself.  The 
following  questions  and  answers  followed  in  rapid 
succession : 

"  Do  you  believe  in  a  personal  God,  to  whom  you 
owe  worship  and  obedience?"  "Most  certainly 
I  do." 

"  Do  you  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  as  God's  beloved 
Son  sent  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world?  "    "Yes." 

"  Do  you  believe  that  you  are,  like  all  the  rest  of 
us,  a  sinner  and  need  Christ  as  your  personal 
Saviour?"     "Yes." 

"  Have  you  accepted  Him  definitely  and  con- 
sciously as  your  Saviour?"  "No,  I  do  not  think  I 
have." 

"  Why  not?  "     "  I  do  not  know." 

"  Do  you  not  think  it  is  necessary  to  come  to  a 
definite  choice  and  decision  in  this  matter  ?  "  "  Cer- 
tainly I  do." 

"  Why  not  make  that  definite  decision  now  ?  "  "I 
am  not  ready." 

"  Your  answer  lets  one  into  the  secret  of  your 
whole  difficulty ;  your  trouble  lies  in  your  will.  You 
are  not  letting  God  have  His  way  in  your  life.  Jesus 
said :  *  If  any  man  is  willing  to  do  His  will,  he  shall 
know    of    the   doctrine,   whether   it   be   of   God   or 


78    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

whether  I  speak  of  Myself/  You  are  accustomed 
to  give  orders  and  be  obeyed ;  you  are  not  willing  to 
take  orders  and  obey,  even  though  they  come  from 
your  Divine  Lord  and  Master.  You  can  never  be  a 
Christian  and  enjoy  the  comfort,  hope,  and  satisfac- 
tion of  the  Christian  until  you  say  '  I  will '  to  God. 
Your  whole  trouble  lies  in  the  unwillingness  of 
your  will." 

He  answered :  "  I  see  it  clear  as  day.  You  have 
hit  the  very  center  of  my  trouble." 

"  In  a  business  transaction,  when  you  see  a  thing 
as  clearly  as  that,  you  act  with  great  promptness  and 
decision.  Will  you  be  as  businesslike  now,  and  say 
right  here  and  now,  *  I  will '  to  the  will  of  God."  He 
replied  with  a  courteous  but  clean-cut  and  positive 
negative,  "  No  !  " 

"  Why  not?  "    "  I  am  not  ready." 

"  Will  you  not  kneel  with  me  and  let  me  pray  that 
God  may  make  you  willing?"  Again  he  replied, 
"No!" 

"  Will  you  not,  then,  promise  that  before  you  re- 
tire to-night  you  will  yourself  kneel  and  ask  God  to 
make  you  willing?"    "No,  I  will  not  promise." 

"Why  not?"  "That  would  settle  the  whole 
business." 

If  a  person  wishes  to  study  psychology,  fathom  the 
secrets  of  the  moral  will,  follow  the  intricate  proc- 
esses of  the  human  spirit  in  its  dealing  with  eternal 
issues,  he  gains  his  supreme  opportunity  in  such  an 
experience  as  this.  This  man  of  iron  will  held  this 
personal  question  at  arm's  length  for  two  whole 
years.    Every  moment  of  that  time  he  knew  that  he 


THE  CITADEL  OF  THE  WILL  79 

was  deliberately  holding  God  off  from  the  control  of 
his  life.  During  this  entire  period  he  was  thoroughly 
aware  that  he  was  taking  great  chances,  considering 
the  uncertainties  of  life,  and  that  he  ought  to  give 
his  heart  to  God. 

The  two  years  passed.  A  deep  work  of  grace 
visited  the  city  through  the  united  work  of  the 
churches  and  the  able  preaching  of  a  skilful  evangel- 
ist. It  came  over  him  that  he  could  not  trifle  with 
this  question  of  his  soul's  salvation  longer,  and  he 
decided  in  his  own  home  that,  if  the  opportunity  for 
public  decision  came,  he  would  be  the  first  on  his 
feet,  whatever  the  message  might  be  or  whether  he 
was  the  only  one  to  respond.  True  to  his  purpose, 
he  was  the  first  of  many  to  give  himself  publicly  to 
God,  and  when  it  was  his  pastor's  privilege  to  grasp 
his  hand  in  the  joy  of  deep  gratitude  and  congratula- 
tion, his  first  word  of  response  was  this :  "  You  are 
responsible  for  it." 

Such  is  the  reward  that  comes  from  persistent, 
prayerful,  loving,  Scriptural  work  in  behalf  of  indi- 
vidual souls.  The  highest  rewards  and  the  deepest 
happiness  are  the  enduring  fruitage  of  such  effort. 
It  was  an  untold  privilege  to  receive  this  converted 
man  into  the  Church.  He  gave  the  first  weeks  of 
his  new  life  in  Christ  to  telling  the  story  of  God's 
grace  to  unconverted  friends.  He  came  at  once  to 
the  front  in  the  activities  of  his  Church,  and  for 
years  has  been  a  leading  member  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees  and  Board  of  Deacons,  and  a  strong  finan- 
cial giver  to  its  support. 

His  entire  career  since  conversion  is  striking  evi- 


80   MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

dence  that  in  adult  life  the  whole  process  of  vital 
and  saving  religion  begins  with  and  hinges  upon  an 
intelligent  and  decisive  act  of  the  will.  This  citadel 
of  power  must  be  surrendered  to  God.  Jesus  Christ 
must  be  invited,  without  reservation,  to  occupy  the 
throne  of  one's  moral  being  and  reign  without  a 
rival  there. 

"Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how; 
Our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  Thine." 


XIII 
THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SOUL 

SPIRITUAL  conflict  and  conversion  is  not 
confined  to  mature  manhood.  Boys  and  girls 
who  understand  the  nature  of  the  Christian 
life  and  what  full  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ  signifies, 
experience  the  same  struggle  of  soul  as  older  people 
in  the  matter  of  decision.  The  odds  against  them 
are,  indeed,  not  as  great,  but  proportionate  to  their 
years  the  battle  is  just  as  strenuous.  At  times  it 
becomes  a  fierce  fight  for  the  soul,  even  in  young 
people  religiously  trained. 

The  experience  of  an  earnest  boy  of  fourteen 
vividly  and  beautifully  illustrates  this  battling  of  the 
soul  for  life.  He  had  back  of  him  the  piety,  faith, 
prayers  and  instructions  of  wise.  Christian  parents. 
The  church  had  been  helpful  in  its  teachings  and 
influence.  Through  these  agencies  he  came  to  a 
clear  sense  of  his  spiritual  need.  A  time  of  excep- 
tional religious  interest  brought  the  question  of  de- 
cision to  definite  issue.  He  was  fully  aware  that  the 
time  had  come  for  him  to  decide  what  kind  of  a  man 
he  ought  and  wanted  to  be. 

One  can  become  intimately  and  sympathetically 
acquainted  with  the  inner  life  of  young  people  only 
as  he  knows  the  strenuousness  of  the  mental,  moral 
and  spiritual  conflicts  through  which  they  pass  in 

81 


82    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

the  years  which  bridge  the  space  between  childhood 
and  young  manhood  and  womanhood.  The  wisest 
and  most  tender  guidance  is  needed  through  these 
years  of  inner  storm  and  stress. 

During  the  after  meeting  of  an  impressive  even- 
ing service  the  earnest  boy  in  question  had  a  per- 
sonal interview  with  his  pastor.  He  was  under  deep 
conviction  of  his  need  and  duty.  In  the  quiet  and 
trustful  relationship  of  the  private  conference  his 
pastor  said  to  him :  "  It  is  very  evident  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  working  in  your  heart,  seeking  to  lead 
you  to  give  your  life  to  God.  Are  you  not  ready 
to  take  Christ  as  your  Saviour  and  from  this  day 
on  to  live  for  him  ? "  He  replied :  "  I  cannot." 
"  Why  not  ?  "  His  exact  and  startling  answer,  for 
one  so  young,  was  this :  "  It  is  a  fight  with  the  devil 
and  with  myself."  His  face  was  pale  through  the 
strenuousness  of  his  inner  conflict. 

"  My  dear  boy,  if  what  you  say  is  true,  you  can- 
not afford  to  go  out  of  this  meeting  to-night  de- 
feated." 

Over  and  over  again  he  affirmed  his  inability  to 
decide. 

"  Let  us,  then,  kneel,"  said  his  pastor,  "  and  pray 
that  God  may  give  you  the  victory  over  yourself  and 
over  the  great  enemy  of  your  soul.  Your  only  hope 
and  strength  in  this  hour  of  need  is  in  Him.  Let  us 
each  pray,  in  turn,  that  He  may  enable  you  to  de- 
cide this  matter  now." 

On  his  knees  the  victory  was  won,  and  when  he 
rose  he  exclaimed  with  a  note  of  triumph :   "  I  will." 

The  inner  change  at  once  became  visible  in  his 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SOUL  83 

outer  life.  A  smile  of  new  happiness  was  on  his 
face,  his  head  was  erect  with  the  consciousness  of 
a  new  manhood,  and  in  look,  manner  and  speech  it 
was  evident  that  a  deep  and  fundamental  transfor- 
mation had  taken  place  in  his  moral  and  spiritual 
life.  From  that  hour  to  mature  manhood  a  life  of 
steady  fidelity  and  growing  strength  confirmed  the 
genuineness  and  thoroughness  of  his  conversion. 
Years  after,  in  a  chance  meeting  with  his  early  pas- 
tor on  a  railway  train,  he  said :  "  Do  you  remember 
that  evening  we  spent  together  in  the  church,  when 
I  made  my  decision  for  Christ?" 

"  Most  vividly,  to  the  minutest  detail,"  was  the 
reply. 

**  That  was  the  turning  point  in  my  life,"  he  said. 
"  The  decision  I  made  then  was  the  making  of  me. 
I  now  have  a  happy  Christian  home,  a  family  altar, 
and  we  are  giving  our  children  Christian  instruction 
daily,  and  in  addition  I  am  doing  all  that  I  can  as 
an  officer  in  the  church  to  make  its  work  a  blessing 
to  the  community  in  which  we  live." 

A  chief  defect  and  difficulty  in  many  a  professedly 
religious  life  and  experience  is  that  the  work  of  con- 
version was  not  thoroughly  done.  The  choice  of 
Christ  meant  little  beyond  the  conception  and  accept- 
ance of  an  ethical  ideal.  The  issue  between  Him 
and  the  world,  between  holiness  and  sin,  between 
self-will  and  the  will  of  God,  was  not  made  definite 
and  clear.  For  this  reason  people  are  often  re- 
ceived into  church  membership  who  never  fought 
to  a  finish  the  spiritual  conflict  that  proved  so  strenu- 
ous in  the  experience  of  this  resolute  boy,  and  who 


84    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

are  consequently  troubled  with  a  sense  of  indefinite- 
ness  and  insecurity  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  re- 
ligious life.  They  miss  that  deep  and  satisfying  joy 
which  comes  from  the  assurance  of  forgiven  sin,  and 
of  being  in  consciously  right  relations  with  God.  In 
many  instances  church  officials  themselves  seem  to 
have  lost  the  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  that 
fundamental  and  revolutionary  experience  which 
Jesus  termed  the  nezv  birth,  and  which  he  made  a 
condition  of  entrance  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

A  philosophy  of  religious  experience  has  come 
into  vogue  in  recent  years  that  cancels  the  line  of 
demarcation  between  the  saved  and  the  unsaved. 
The  whole  process  is  treated  as  a  natural  evolution 
rather  than  as  one  of  intelligent  moral  choice.  Under 
wise  religious  instruction  and  guidance  a  child  may 
become  a  Christian  without  ever  knowing  the  time 
of  his  spiritual  renewal,  but  no  greater  wrong  can 
be  done  one  who  has  reached  the  age  of  mature  self- 
determination  than  to  receive  him  into  church  mem- 
bership while  he  is  still  uncertain  as  to  his  funda- 
mental attitude  to  Jesus  Christ.  A  professedly 
Christian  experience  that  has  never  known  a  spir- 
itual conflict  or  a  battle  of  the  moral  will,  is  neces- 
sarily unacquainted  with  the  vital  issues  and  the 
vital  nature  of  the  Christian  life.  It  is  as  Jesus  said, 
"  If  a  man  milleth  to  do  his  will  he  shall  know  of 
the  teaching,  whether  it  is  from  God,  or  whether  I 
speak  from  myself."  Clear  issues  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  life  save  one  from  superficiality,  in- 
definiteness  and  disappointment  later  on. 


XIV 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  A  NORMAL 
CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE 

A  DEVOTED  teacher  in  the  Sunday  School 
found  it  necessary  to  give  up  her  class. 
Without  consulting  the  superintendent, 
her  girls,  about  fourteen  years  of  age,  asked  a  cer- 
tain estimable  and  attractive  young  lady  to  become 
their  teacher.  She  consented,  even  though  she  was 
not  a  member  of  the  church.  Discovering  the  situa- 
tion, the  superintendent  came  to  his  pastor  and  said: 
"  I  am  in  a  difficult  and  embarrassing  position,  these 
girls  have  secured  Miss  M.  as  their  teacher,  and  she 
is  not  a  Christian,  and  cannot  give  them  the  help 
and  spiritual  instruction  they  need.  What  shall  I 
do?"  He  answered:  "Miss  M.  is  a  young  lady  of 
serious  mind  and  purpose.  She  has  evidently  as- 
sumed this  responsibility  with  serious  intent.  She 
will  soon  discover  her  need  and  either  give  up  her 
class  or  become  a  Christian." 

"  You  have  greatly  relieved  my  mind,"  said  the 
superintendent,  "  I  will  let  matters  rest  awhile  and 
see  how  the  case  develops." 

Exactly  as  predicted,  the  new  teacher,  in  about 
six  weeks,  came  to  her  pastor  and  said :  "  I  find  that 
I  cannot  lead  my  girls  to  Christ  unless  I  know 
Christ." 

85 


86    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

"  Do  you  wish  to  know  Him,  and  become  His 
true  disciple?"  "I  do,"  she  replied,  "that  is  why 
I  have  come  to  see  you  to-day."  After  stating  as 
clearly  as  possible  the  nature  of  the  Christian  life, 
and  that  it  was  a  complete  yielding  of  her  will  to 
the  will  of  Jesus  as  her  sovereign  Lord  and  Master, 
and  an  unreserved,  complete,  joyful  and  trustful 
abandonment  of  her  life  to  the  guidance  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  as  revealed  in  the  teachings  of  the 
inspired  Word,  she  was  asked  if  she  was  ready  to 
accept  Christ  on  these  terms.  She  unhesitatingly 
responded  in  the  affirmative.  Her  decision  was 
definite  and  discriminating. 

Nothing  was  then  said  about  a  public  profession 
of  her  faith,  in  order  to  avoid  confusion  of  issues 
and  the  seeming  identification  of  church  membership 
with  Christian  experience.  She  went  forth  as  one 
relieved  of  a  heavy  burden,  spiritually  emancipated, 
happy,  joyously  free. 

Again,  in  another  six  weeks,  she  called  at  the  par- 
sonage to  talk  over  the  problems  that  had  been  work- 
ing in  her  mind.  "  I  have  been  thinking,"  she  said, 
"  that  it  is  my  duty  as  a  Christian  to  make  a  public 
confession  of  my  faith  in  Christ  and  unite  with  the 
Church,  but  there  are  certain  things  that  I  do  and 
enjoy  and  see  no  harm  in  that  some  Christians  look 
upon  with  disapproval,  and  I  do  not  want  to  sub- 
ject myself  to  criticism  or  to  being  misunderstood. 
Under  these  circumstances,  what  is  best  for  me 
to  do?" 

"  When  you  began  the   Christian  life,"   she   was 


EVOLUTION  OF  EXPERIENCE  87 

asked,  "  did  you  expect  to  be  a  growing  Christian  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Do   you    desire    to    be    a   growing    Christian  ? " 

"  Yes,  most  assuredly." 

"  When  you  accepted  Christ  as  your  Saviour,  did 
you  also  accept  him  as  your  Light,  *  the  Light  that 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world  ? '  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Are  you  willing  to  receive  and  welcome  light  as 
it  comes  to  you  on  the  various  problems  of  char- 
acter and  conduct  ?  " 

"  Yes,  if  I  know  my  cwn  heart,  I  am." 

"  Your  only  course,  then,  is  to  go  forward  at  once 
and  unite  with  the  Church.  You  have  only  one 
Master,  and  that  is  Christ.  Your  conscience  must 
be  subject  to  him  and  to  him  alone  in  all  these  intri- 
cate life  problems.  If  there  is  anything  questionable 
in  the  things  to  which  you  have  referred  you  will 
ultimately  be  assured  of  it,  under  his  guidance. 
The  Church  cannot  be  conscience  for  you,  nor  your 
pastor,  nor  any  earthly  advisor  or  friend." 

Thus  relieved  in  mind  and  heart,  with  the  nature 
and  philosophy  of  the  Christian  life  made  intelligible 
and  clear,  she  at  once  united  with  the  Church,  and 
was  exceptionally  happy  in  her  decision. 

Another  six  weeks  passed.  Again  she  made  a  con- 
fidant of  her  pastor:  "  I  want  to  tell  you  something; 
for  some  time  I  have  been  a  member  of  a  club  that 
meets  weekly  on  a  certain  evening.  That  is  the 
evening  of  our  church  prayer  meeting.  It  soon  be- 
came evident  to  me  that  I,  as  a  Christian  and  a 
church  member,  must  choose  between  the  club  and 


88    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

the  prayer  meeting;  and  now  I  have  given  up  the 
club  altogether.  Moreover,  I  have  somehow  lost 
my  relish  for  what  I  once  thought  so  essential  to 
my  enjoyment." 

No  finer  or  more  beautiful  illustration  could  be 
given  of  the  normal  processes  of  Christian  discovery 
and  growth.  The  secret  of  Protestant  Christianity 
lies  in  its  power  to  secure  spiritual  intelligence,  free- 
dom from  conscience,  and  capacity  for  initiative  and 
self-government  under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit,  in 
the  individual  Christian.  The  Church  can  never 
legislate  for  the  individual  believer.  The  disciple  of 
the  Master  has  no  human  or  ecclesiastical  authority 
with  any  right  of  sovereignty  over  the  realm  of  his 
inner  life;  no  Pontiff  to  prescribe  laws  or  dictate 
terms.  Christ  makes  all  true  disciples  of  his  kings 
and  priests  unto  God,  forever,  and  the  only  secret 
of  a  successful  Christian  life  is  to  be  absolutely  sub- 
ject to  his  will  in  all  things  in  order  to  be  absolutely 
free  in  the  realm  of  intelligent  and  divinely  ordered 
self-government. 

The  young  lady  whose  experience  has  just  been 
given  soon  became  one  of  the  most  devoted  and 
effective  leaders  in  her  church.  Her  entire  influ- 
ence was  religiously  constructive  and  spiritually 
vital,  and  all  because  she  was  supremely  loyal  to  her 
Divine  Master  in  every  choice  and  decision,  begin- 
ning with  and  following  her  acceptance  of  His 
sovereignty  over  her  innermost  life. 


XV 
THE  CONVERSION  OF  A  MORALIST 

THE  Bible  has  truth  suited  to  every  kind  of 
mental  and  moral  need.  One's  chief  reli- 
ance in  meeting  such  need  is  the  Word  of 
God,  which  is  "  living  and  active,"  and  which,  like 
a  two-edged  sword,  "  pierces  even  to  the  dividing  of 
soul  and  spirit,  and  is  quick  to  discern  the  thoughts 
and  intents  of  the  heart."  No  class  of  persons  is 
more  difficult  to  reach,  and  to  bring  to  contrition 
and  a  sense  of  spiritual  need,  than  that  of  the  Moral- 
ist who  for  years,  possibly  a  lifetime,  has  wrapped 
himself  securely  and  contentedly  in  a  mantle  of  self- 
righteousness.  He  seems  utterly  impervious  to 
truth.  Secure  behind  the  fortress  of  his  own  in- 
tegrity he  resists  and  resents  the  imputation  that  he 
still  lacks,  like  the  rich  young  ruler,  the  one  thing 
needful. 

The  experience  of  such  a  man  is  here  recorded. 
He  was  approximately  three  score  years  and  ten. 
He  prided  himself  on  his  clean  moral  life  and  his 
right  relations  to  his  fellow-men.  He  compared 
himself  favourably  with  professing  Christians,  and 
justly  so  as  regards  his  outward  conduct  and  deed. 
He  had  been  brought  up  in  the  Universalist  faith, 
and  like  all  men  of  that  creed  who  believe  that  all 
men  are  to  be  saved,  he  gradually  lost  sight  of  the 

8» 


90    MASTEK'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

grace  that  saves.  He  was  sufficient  unto  himself. 
He  did,  indeed,  acknowledge  the  superlative  good- 
ness of  the  Christian  life,  but  his  apparent  humility 
only  served  to  reveal  a  moral  pride  and  self-esteem 
that  resented  every  suggestion  of  moral  unworthi- 
ness  even  in  the  presence  of  God's  infinite  perfection. 
Argument  was  useless ;  human  effort  of  no  avail. 

One  day  his  pastor,  with  New  Testament  in  hand, 
had  a  chat  with  him  over  his  garden  fence.  He  gave 
expression  to  his  deep  solicitude,  and  his  conviction 
that  his  elderly  friend  needed  a  new  vision  of  the 
grace  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  love  and  sacrifice 
of  Jesus.  Instead  of  arguing  with  him  about  the 
great  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith,  he  asked  the 
privilege  of  reading  to  him  the  opening  verses  of  the 
tenth  chapter  of  Romans,  which  is  the  most  marvel- 
ous passage  on  self-righteousness  in  the  Bible.  He 
pictured  to  him  Paul's  solicitude  for  his  countrymen 
who  were  outwardly  righteous,  but  still  unacquainted 
with  the  character,  grace  and  will  of  God :  "  Breth- 
ren, my  heart's  desire  and  prayer  to  God  for  Israel 
is  that  they  may  be  saved.  For  I  bear  them  record 
that  they  have  a  zeal  for  God,  but  not  according  to 
knowledge.  For  they  being  ignorant  of  God's  right- 
eousness, and  going  about  to  establish  their  own 
righteousness,  have  not  submitted  themselves  to  the 
righteousness  of  God.  For  Christ  is  the  end  of  the 
law  unto  righteousness  to  every  one  that  believeth." 
The  words  italicized  were  emphasized  and  inter- 
preted in  the  reading.  They  proved  the  Spirit's  mes- 
sage to  the  self-righteous  man's  soul.  They  con- 
victed him  of  lifelong  sin  in  ignoring  and  dishonour- 


CONVERSION  OF  A  MORALIST  91 

ing  God.  They  made  him  conscious  of  a  great  moral 
defect  and  need.  They  revealed  to  him,  with  over- 
whelming power,  the  perfect  righteousness  of  Christ, 
and  his  own  unsaved  condition.  They  tarried  in  his 
mind  until  they  melted  him  to  penitence  and  shame. 
A  few  days  later,  his  pastor,  feeling  that  a  crisis 
had  come  in  the  old  man's  life,  called  upon  him.  The 
latter  met  him  at  the  door,  and  even  before  the 
morning  greeting  could  be  given,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,  he  said,  "  I  want  to  find  Jesus."  When  the 
nature  of  the  Christian  life  was  thoroughly  ex- 
plained, and  the  way  of  confession  and  acceptance 
made  clear,  he  joyfully  knelt  in  prayer  and  gave  him- 
self with  glad  eagerness  to  God.  That  very  day  he 
established  a  family  altar,  and  the  life  that  for  sev- 
enty years  had  been  prayerless  was  changed  to  a 
life  of  earnest  and  intelligent  daily  devotion.  He  at 
once  found  himself,  also,  in  a  relation  of  spiritual 
intimacy  and  unity,  of  spiritual  acquaintance  and 
companionship  with  his  Christian  wife,  that  he  had 
never  known  or  even  suspected  as  possible.  He 
made  the  sad  discovery  that  for  a  lifetime  his  re- 
ligious agnosticism  had  shut  him  out  of  the  sweetest 
joys  and  richest  experiences  that  true  marriage  and 
a  religious  home  can  ever  know.  He  did  his  best  to 
atone  for  this  ignorance  and  neglect.  He  made  a 
public  confession  of  his  new-found  faith,  united  with 
the  Church,  and  for  a  goodly  number  of  years  lived 
to  witness  to  the  transforming  power  of  God's  grace 
in  the  life  of  a  true  believer. 


XVI 

A  FALSE  AND  OBSTRUCTIVE  HUMILITY 

TO  adjust  one's  self  to  all  kinds  of  tempera- 
ments and  satisfy  all  varieties  of  mental 
and  spiritual  need  is  a  supremely  fine  art. 
The  study  of  the  inner  life  of  personalities  under  the 
inspiration  of  the  evangelical  motive  and  passion  de- 
velops intuitive  skill,  sensitiveness  of  sympathy,  and 
tactfulness  and  winsomeness  in  personal  approach. 

A  man  of  vital  religious  experience,  somewhat 
past  middle  life,  had  never  publicly  acknowledged 
himself  as  a  Christian.  Self-depreciating,  and  pos- 
sessed of  an  exceptionally  retiring  disposition  and  an 
over-sensitive  conscience,  he  shrank  from  any  act 
that  seemed  like  assuming  special  attainment  in 
Christian  character  or  knowledge.  Notwithstanding 
his  extreme  diffidence,  he  daily  conducted  the  family 
devotions,  impelled  by  a  high  sense  of  Christian  duty. 
The  courage  which  overcame  his  natural  reticence 
was  the  product  of  a  religious  inheritance  and  train- 
ing in  the  most  spiritually  intelligent  and  God-fear- 
ing home  in  the  community.  It  was,  however,  seem- 
ingly impossible  for  him  to  break  through  the  reserve 
of  his  shrinking  modesty  and  step  out,  publicly,  into 
the  joyous  freedom  of  liberty  in  Christ.  His  diffi- 
culty came,  not  from  any  uncertainty  as  to  the  gen- 
uineness of  his  religious  experience,  but  from  (to  his 

92 


FALSE  AND  OBSTRUCTIVE  HUMILITY     93 

sensitive  mind)  the  appalling  significance  of  the  word 
"  profession  "  as  it  was  used  in  the  terminology  of 
the  Church  in  his  earlier  years.  To  him  the  word 
was  forbidding  and  repellent  because  of  its  seeming 
assumption  of  exceptional  attainment  and  worthi- 
ness. "  Profession,"  to  him,  was  little  else  than 
boasting  of  peculiar  merit  and  a  superior  righteous- 
ness. His  humility  was  real,  yet  painful,  misleading 
and  obstructive. 

Some  new  and  luminous,  not  to  say  startling,  way 
of  presenting  truth  was  necessary  to  shake  him  out 
of  his  lifelong  habit  of  thought  and  his  false  con- 
ception of  public  confession. 

"  Do  you  really  think,"  he  was  asked,  "  that  you 
are  so  much  better  than  other  people  that  you  do  not 
need  to  acknowledge  your  need  of  a  Saviour  and 
your  dependence  on  Christ  ?  " 

He  was  almost  shocked,  if  not  hurt,  by  the  inquiry, 
and  denied  that  he  had  ever  entertained  such  a 
thought  regarding  himself. 

It  was  then  made  clear  to  him  that  until  a  person 
has  acknowledged  himself  a  sinner,  in  the  sight  of 
God  and  men,  by  publicly  confessing  his  need  of  a 
Redeemer,  he  is  standing  before  the  community  in 
his  own  name  and  righteousness,  as  sufficient  unto 
himself.  He  is  practically  saying  to  his  fellow-men 
that  his  own  goodness,  effort  and  attainment  were  all 
that  he  needs. 

The  truth  flashed  upon  him  with  great  vividness. 
It  became  plain  to  him  that  Jesus  made  confession 
one  of  the  first  evidences  and  requirements  of  dis- 
cipleship :    "  Every  one  who  shall  confess  me  before 


94    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

men,  him  will  I  also  confess  before  my  Father  who 
is  in  heaven." 

The  refined  and  sensitive  man,  in  the  light  of  this 
explanation,  saw  what  he  had  never  seen  before,  and 
what  many  others  have  never  seen,  that  in  the  act 
of  public  confession,  one,  for  the  first  time,  acknowl- 
edges his  miworthiness  before  the  world,  and  ascribes 
glory  to  Jesus  as  the  "  only  name  under  heaven, 
given  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved." 
From  this  moment  he  had  an  altogether  new  con- 
ception of  the  Church.  Instead  of  being  composed 
of  individuals  who  considered  themselves  better  than 
others,  veritable  "  saints,"  it  was  composed  of  those 
who  publicly  confessed  their  moral  unworthiness  and 
their  dependence  upon  the  mercy  and  grace  of  a  for- 
giving God.  For  the  first  time  in  his  life  he  realized 
that  the  Church  is  a  school  for  learners,  and  not  con- 
stituted of  people  who  profess  to  have  made  superior 
attainments  in  knowledge  and  character;  that  it  is  a 
hospital  where  the  spiritually  sick  and  infirm  come 
to  be  cared  for  and  cured.  It  dawned  upon  him  that 
he  had  been  treating  the  Church  as  though  it  were 
an  assembly  of  boasters,  religiously  proud  and  con- 
ceited, a  "  better-than-thou  "  sort  of  people,  who  like 
the  Pharisees  of  old  dishonoured  God  and  despised 
men,  saying,  as  they  drew  about  them  their  robes  of 
self-righteousness  and  religious  seclusiveness,  "  We 
thank  God  that  we  are  not  as  other  men  are." 

It  was  a  revolutionary  discovery.  This  humble, 
retiring,  self-depreciating  man,  now  saw  that  all  un- 
consciously he  had  been  the  secliisive  one,  standing 
before  his  fellow-men  in  the  attitude  of  self-suffi- 


FALSE  AND  OBSTRUCTIVE  HUMILITY     95 

ciency  and  self-dependence.  He  instantly  and 
eagerly  sought  to  remedy  the  mistake  of  a  lifetime 
by  the  immediate  public  confession  of  his  Christian 
faith  in  the  act  of  uniting  with  the  Church.  The 
decision,  however,  came  too  late,  for  on  the  very 
Sunday  when  he  hoped  to  take  his  first  Communion 
with  the  people  of  God  he  passed  away,  expressing 
great  grief  that  he  could  not  make  this  public  testi- 
mony to  his  devotion  to  Christ  before  he  died.  The 
community,  however,  was  not  ignorant  of  his  new- 
found joy,  and  was  impressed  by  the  decisive  pur- 
pose of  this  humble,  quiet,  retiring,  self-depreciating, 
yet  splendidly  courageous  man. 

The  loss  in  this  man's  religious  life  could  not  be 
attributed  so  much  to  a  failure  in  his  own  purpose 
and  desire,  as  to  the  defect  in  the  religious  instruc- 
tion of  his  childhood  days.  The  terminology  of  the 
Church  gave  a  wrong  conception  of  the  nature  and 
significance  of  public  confession  by  the  common  use 
of  the  word  "  profession  " ;  while  its  officials  rather 
hindered  than  helped  young  people  to  give  public  ex- 
pression to  their  religious  purpose,  experience  and 
desire  in  early  years.  The  entire  history  of  this  de- 
vout and  modest  man  witnesses  to  the  need  of  an 
alert,  intelligent,  sympathetic  evangelism  on  the  part 
of  all  who  deal  with  childhood  in  the  home  and  in 
the  Church,  or  in  any  other  of  the  vital  and  forma- 
tive relationships  of  life. 


XVII 
HONEST  DIFFICULTY  WITH  A  CREED 

INTELLECTUAL  difficulties  to  belief  in  a  creed 
usually  vanish  when  moral  difficulties  are  re- 
moved. Skepticism  is  more  of  the  heart  than 
of  the  head.  There  are  exceptions  to  this  rule.  For 
example,  people  trained  to  one  system  of  belief  do 
not  easily  adjust  themselves  to  the  doctrinal  teach- 
ings of  another.  It  seems  inherently  impossible  for 
one  born  and  trained  a  Catholic  to  absorb  Protes- 
tantism. Romanism  is  rarely  eradicated  from  the 
blood.  This  is  an  extreme  illustration.  Among  the 
Protestant  sects  there  is,  at  least,  the  kinship  of 
mental  freedom,  and  on  the  great  doctrines  of  God, 
sin,  redemption  and  immortality,  a  practical  unanim- 
ity of  belief.  The  differences  that  divide  denomina- 
tions have  to  do  for  the  most  part  with  metaphysical, 
philosophical,  or  theological  discussion  of  subordinate 
doctrines,  i.  e.,  doctrines  not  fundamentally  essential 
to  salvation,  or  with  such  pure  externalities  as  forms 
and  ceremonies,  rituals  and  polities,  and  the  simple 
method  of  doing  things. 

The  following  experience  is  a  beautiful  and  in- 
structive illustration  of  honest  intellectual  difficulty 
with  the  most  profound  metaphysical  problem  of 
Christianity, — the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  The  per- 
son wrestling  with  this  problem  was  by  birth  and 

96 


HONEST  DIFFICULTY  WITH  A  CREED     97 

education  a  Unitarian.  She  was  a  woman  about  35 
years  of  age,  intelligent,  thoughtful,  devout,  relig- 
iously earnest,  and  a  thorough  believer  in  Christ  as 
the  Redeemer  of  the  world.  Although  within  easy 
reach  of  a  prominent  Unitarian  church,  she  was  by 
preference  a  regular  attendant  at  another  church, 
where  worship  was  warmly  evangelical  and  the 
Deity  of  Christ  unhesitatingly  proclaimed. 

After  a  year  or  more  of  regular  fellowship,  both 
at  the  mid-week  prayer  meeting  as  well  as  at  the 
Sunday  services,  she  was  asked  if  she  did  not  desire 
to  enter  into  still  more  vital  relations  as  a  member 
of  the  church.  She  replied,  "  Yes,  I  would,  but  I 
cannot  conscientiously  subscribe  to  the  first  article 
of  your  creed.  I  was  brought  up  a  Unitarian,  and 
your  creed  begins  with  a  statement  of  your  belief  in 
the  Trinity." 

"  What  led  you,  then,  to  prefer  this  church  to 
your  own?  " 

"  The  fact  that  I  find  myself,  in  religious  experi- 
ence, more  in  harmony  with  and  more  vitally  related 
here  than  to  the  church  of  my  own  faith  in  the  city. 
Moreover,  I  am  more  helped  and  satisfied  in  my  spir- 
itual life  here  than  there.  In  all  the  matters  of  per- 
sonal and  practical  religion  I  am  more  truly  in  fel- 
lowship with  this  church  than  with  the  church  of  my 
childhood." 

"Why,  then,  not  identify  yourself  with  us  in 
church  membership?" 

"  It  would,  as  I  said,  not  be  intellectually  honest 
for  me  to  do  so,  as  I  cannot  conscientiously  subscribe 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity." 


98    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

"  Your  position  can  be  frankly  stated  to  the  church 
committee  and  to  the  people  of  the  church,  so  that 
you  would  be  relieved  of  all  subterfuge  or  incon- 
sistency in  the  matter." 

"  Yes,  but  this  would  not  satisfy  my  own  heart 
and  conscience,  for  in  subscribing  to  your  creed  I 
would  still  have  to  make  a  mental  reservation  or 
evasion." 

"  Do  you  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  God's  well- 
beloved  Son,  sent  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world?  " 

"  Yes,  I  have  no  doubt  as  to  that  point,  but  simply 
as  to  his  equality  with  the  Father, — his  standing  in 
the  God-head." 

"  Have  you  accepted  him  as  your  Saviour,  just  as 
we  accept  him  to  be  our  Redeemer  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  am  sure  that  I  have." 

"Your  place,  then,  from  every  point  of  view  ex- 
cept as  regards  an  intricate,  not  to  say  infinite  meta- 
physical problem,  which  no  one  can  ever  adequately 
fathom,  is  here  and  not  with  the  Unitarians.  Ex- 
perimentally you  are  one  with  us,  and  on  all  matters 
of  doctrine,  except  the  one  just  referred  to,  you 
ought  to  be  with  us  in  permanent  church  fellowship. 
We  believe  confidently  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
and  in  the  Deity  of  Jesus,  not  because  we  have 
fathomed  all  the  mysteries  of  that  historic  doctrine, 
but  because  we  cannot  accept  Jesus's  teachings  re- 
garding himself  and  the  frequent  reference  to  the 
Trinity  in  the  New  Testament  without  accepting  this 
also.  It  seems  the  greater  wisdom  and  reason  so  to 
do.  Moreover,  you  have  unconsciously  paid  a 
tribute  to   the   vital  power  of  this   doctrine  in  ac- 


HONEST  DIFFICULTY  WITH  A  CREED     99 

knowl edging  the  greater  spiritual  vitality  of  the 
evangelical  faith  than  of  the  faith  in  which  you  were 
educated.  If  it  can  be  made  thoroughly  plain  to  our 
people  that  you  have  not  yet  solved  the  problem  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  that  like  the  rest  of 
us  you  are  still  a  learner  in  this,  as  well  as  in  all  the 
other  great  truths  of  the  creed,  do  you  think  you 
could  consistently  unite  with  us  ?  " 

She  answered,  "  You  have  made  this  so  plain  that 
I  am  willing  to  do  so,  provided  the  people  thoroughly 
understand  my  position." 

The  matter  was  presented  to  the  congregation  at 
the  mid-week  service,  in  her  presence,  in  a  way  to 
satisfy  her  and  all  concerned.  On  the  Sunday  fol- 
lowing this  action  she  united  with  the  church,  and 
was  happy  in  so  doing.  Her  testimonies  to  Christian 
faith  and  experience  in  the  weekly  prayer  meetings 
of  the  church  were  among  the  most  vital  and  spir- 
itually intelligent  given  by  those  who  gladly  wit- 
nessed to  the  saving  grace  of  their  Divine  Lord. 

As  time  went  on  her  intellectual  difficulties,  as  to 
the  doctrine  of  Christ's  deity,  disappeared.  The 
metaphysical  problems  of  this  truth  gave  way  to  its 
practical  power.  In  her  beautiful  and  consistent 
Christian  life  she  came,  unconsciously,  to  substan- 
tiate St.  Paul's  declaration,  that  faith  in  the  deity  of 
Jesus  is  not  an  intellectual  but  a  spiritual  acquisition, 
and  that  "  No  man  can  say,  Jesus  is  Lord,  but  in  the 
Holy  Spirit." 

This  experience  of  honest  difficulty  in  entering  a 
church  because  of  inability  to  apprehend,  intellectu- 
ally, some  article  of  faith,  made  it  evident  to  the  en- 


100    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

tire  church  that  subscription  to  a  creed  should  not 
be  made  the  condition  of  membership,  but,  rather, 
vital  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  as  one's  personal  Saviour. 
The  church  should,  indeed,  have  its  clear  statement 
of  doctrine,  expressing  its  consensus  of  belief  and 
its  historic  faith,  but  how  can  a  child,  or  a  person  not 
educated  to  mature  religious  thought,  intelligently 
subscribe  to  a  comprehensive  creed  which  required 
the  profound  scholarship  of  able  and  devout  theolo- 
gians to  produce  ?  It  would  be  utter  folly  to  dispense 
with  such  a  creed  in  order  to  meet  the  whim,  the 
ignorance  or  the  limitations  of  an  individual  member, 
but  it  is  equal  folly  to  insist,  as  a  condition  of  mem- 
bership, that  a  person  of  such  Hmitations  shall  sub- 
scribe to  a  statement  of  doctrine  which  he  can,  by 
no  possibility,  understand.  If  he  can  say,  "  I  believe 
in  God ;  and  that  He  is  my  Father ;  and  that  He  sent 
Jesus  His  well-beloved  Son  to  be  my  Saviour;  I 
accept  him  as  such,  and  promise  to  do  his  will  as 
best  I  know  how,  as  taught  in  the  Bible  and  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,"  this  experimental  faith  is  all  that  any 
church  has  a  right  to  ask  of  any  candidate  for  mem- 
bership. 

So  convinced  was  the  church  of  this  fact,  in  its 
admission  of  this  new  member,  so  troubled  with  in- 
tellectual difficulty  and  so  conscientious  in  her  hesi- 
tancy to  unite  with  the  church,  that  by  unanimous 
vote  it  supplemented  its  articles  of  faith  with  the  fol- 
lowing conditions  of  membership: 

"The  foregoing  articles  embody  the  maturest 
wisdom  of  the  church  on  matters  of  Christian  faith 
and  doctrine.  They  are  intended  as  an  expression 
of  the  fundamental  teachings  of  the  Biblical  revela- 


HONEST  DIFFICULTY  WITH  A  CREED  101 

tion,  and  not  as  a  test  of  qualification  for  church 
membership  on  the  part  of  those  new  in  faith  or  im- 
mature in  Christian  knowledge. 

The  basis  of  membership  in  the  Kingdom  of  God 
is  not  intellectual  acceptance  of  a  creed,  but  re- 
pentance of  sin,  faith  in  Christ  as  personal  Lord 
and  Saviour,  and  a  purpose  to  serve  Him  with  all 
the  heart.  The  Scriptural  injunction  to  grow  in 
knowledge,  as  well  as  in  grace,  implies  ignorance 
and  immaturity.  The  church  is  the  school  of  faith. 
Its  mission  is  to  educate  immature  disciples  in  doc- 
trine, not  to  receive  those  exclusively  who  have 
solved  all  the  mysteries  of  a  supernatural  revelation. 

Rejection  of  fundamental  Biblical  truth  would, 
necessarily,  disqualify  one  for  Christian  fellowship; 
otherwise  all,  however  limited  their  knowledge  or 
rudimentary  their  faith,  who  with  reverent  and 
teachable  mind  love  Christ  and  believe  themselves 
/to  have  been  renewed  in  heart  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
are  entitled  to  membership  in  the  Church." 

This  statement  relieved  many  minds,  made  the 
relation  of  immature  Christians  to  their  public  con- 
fession of  faith  consistent  and  normal,  and  pre- 
vented any  recurrence  of  the  difficulty  through 
which  the  church  had  just  passed. 


PART  III 

AN  ESTIMATE  OF  VALUES 

XVIII 

THE  REWARDS  OF  PERSONAL 
EVANGELISM 

NO  joy  can  surpass  that  of  winning  a  soul  to 
Jesus  Christ,  or  to  a  higher  plane  of  spir- 
itual life.  This  is  the  "  joy  of  the  Lord," 
the  joy  felt  "  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God 
over  one  sinner  that  repenteth.'*  This  was  the  Mas- 
ter's abiding  happiness,  the  spiritual  contentment  and 
satisfaction  that  he  promised  his  disciples  when  he 
said:  "That  my  joy  may  be  in  you,  and  that  your 
joy  may  be  full." 

"  He  that  winneth  souls  is  wise ;  "  "  And  they  that 
be  wise,"  says  an  ancient  prophecy,  "  shall  shine  as 
the  brightness  of  the  firmament ;  and  they  that  turn 
many  to  righteousness  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever." 

Such  are  the  rewards  that  come  to  an  efficient 
workman  in  the  harvest  fields  of  the  Master. 

Christianity  has  been  well  characterized  as  the 
highest  form  of  friendship.  It  is  a  friendship  not 
born  of  human  love,  a  God-inspired  affection,  an 
abiding  spiritual  kinship,  the  love  of  Christ  repro- 
ducing in  us  its  own  seeking  and  saving  purpose  and 
passion.  When  this  love  becomes  manifest  in  a 
Christian  worker,  it  is  welcomed  by  unchristian  men 

102 


KEWARDS  OF  PERSONAL  EVANGELISM  103 

with  a  feeling  of  confidence,  dependence  and  trust. 
In  the  toil,  temptation  and  stress  of  daily  life,  human 
hearts  crave  the  counsel  and  companionship  of  some 
wise  and  assured  friend.  The  "  confessional "  is 
based  on  a  fundamental  human  need.  Young  people, 
especially,  with  their  hunger  for  the  best,  their  eager 
outlook  on  the  future,  their  troubles,  doubts,  per- 
plexities and  defeats,  delight  to  come  to  a  wise  and 
trusted  friend  and  confide  to  him  their  innermost 
purposes,  hopes  and  desires.  This  is  true,  also,  of 
people  of  any  age  and  in  any  experience  of  joy  or 
sorrow  or  need. 

The  following  narrative  illustrates  the  intimacy 
and  mutual  confidence  of  such  spiritual  companion- 
ship :  A  young  man,  from  a  far-off  home,  came  as  a 
stranger  to  our  church.  Although  not  a  professing 
Christian,  he  was  eager  to  make  his  life  morally  and 
materially  a  success.  He  had  not  yet  settled  the 
problems  of  personal  religion,  but  was  purposing  to 
seek  and  find  the  truth  as  God  would  have  him  know 
it.  The  welcome  given  him  warmed  his  heart  and 
stimulated  his  interest.  He  was  invited  to  many  a 
personal  interview.  He  responded  ardently  to  Chris- 
tian ideals  of  character,  and  to  the  light  that  made 
the  truth  and  the  way  plain.  It  was  not  long  before 
he  and  his  most  intimate  friend,  in  whom  this  ex- 
perience was  being  duplicated,  were  ready  to  make 
public  confession  of  their  faith  in  Christ.  As  soon 
as  he  had  made  this  expression  of  his  consecration 
and  life-purpose,  he  set  to  work  to  interest  all  young 
men  within  the  reach  of  his  influence,  in  the  church 
and  in  the  higher  things  of  life.     He  became,  as  did 


104    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

his  room-mate,  a  ceaseless,  wise,  tactful,  winsome 
personal  worker,  without  making  it  appear  as  any- 
thing out  of  the  ordinary.  His  personal  approach 
was  so  normal  and  friendly  that  it  did  not  appear 
obtrusive,  or  even  as  specifically  a  religious  pro- 
cedure, but  simply  a  natural  conversation  upon 
things  of  ordinary  and  mutual  concern.  He  always 
had  in  view,  however,  the  basal  facts  in  life,  which 
when  rightly  presented  are  to  any  normal  person  of 
absorbing  interest.  Business  promotion  soon  took 
him  to  another  city,  and  one  cannot  better  illustrate 
the  gratitude  and  affection  that  reward  one  for  help- 
ing another  to  assured  ground  in  faith  and  religious 
experience  than  by  quoting  from  the  letter  which  he 
wrote  after  he  had  gone: 

"  I  want  to  tell  you  what  the  past  year  has  meant  to  me 
in  my  spiritual  life.  When  I  came  to  C.  I  had  all  the  de- 
sires and  possibilities  for  Christian  character.  I  had 
passed  through  the  sphere  of  popularity  at  school  and  had 
found  it  decidedly  bubble-like  in  its  termination.  Mv  habits 
and  desires  were  Christian;  but  I  held  back  a  considerable 
part  of  myself,  not  knowing  that  real  happiness  lies  in  giv- 
ing to  others.  In  the  wonderful  atmosphere  of  cordiality 
that  surrounded  me  while  in  the  company  of  your  dear 
people,  I  have  awakened  to  the  real  things  of  life.  In  so 
far  as  I  am  permitted  I  shall  work  for  God's  kingdom  on 
earth. 

This  is  one  phase  of  the  change  wrought  in  me,  and 
now  I  come  to  another, — not  as  important  as  the  other,  be- 
cause  a    result   rather    than   a    fundamental.     I    have   been 

successful  in  my  work  with  the  Railroad.    But 

do  you  know  that  my  power  to  advance  has  been  God-given? 
The  very  things  that  have  enabled  me  to  grow  in  Christ 
have  made  it  possible  for  me  to  go  ahead.  I  am  told  that 
I  have  original  methods  of  organization.  I  should  hardly 
call  them  that.  My  power  to  gain  the  co-operation  of  those 
under  me  is  due  to  the  fact,  whether  I  realize  it  or  not,  that 
each  action  of  mine  is  coming  more  and  more  to  be  done 
in  the  inspiration  of  my  Christian  life. 


REWARDS  OF  PERSONAL  EVANGELISM  105 

I  am  happy  as  I  never  knew  happiness  before.  My  daily 
Bible  readings  are  under  the  halo  of  a  new-found  appre- 
ciation. 

I  had  wanted  to  tell  you  these  things  by  word  of  mouth, 
but  as  it  could  not  be,  I  have  written.  In  this  change  of 
mine  your  share  has  been  no  small  one.  Words  can  never 
express  my  appreciation  of  the  influence  of  your  spiritual 
vision  upon  me.  I  shall  probably  never  get  the  opportunity 
to  return  it  in  like  measure  to  you  and  yours,  but  I  can 
and  will  pass  it  on  to  others. 

I  shall  always  think  of  you  as  among  my  choicest  friends. 
Your  influence  has  been  second  to  none  but  my  mother's 
and  father's. 


With  a  son's   affection." 

One  would  not  be  warranted  in  publishing  such 
a  letter  did  it  not  reveal  so  beautifully  the  soul  con- 
fidences, the  spiritual  intimacies  that  grow  up  be- 
tween those  who  help  and  those  who  have  been 
helped  in  their  religious  life.  One  could  well  afford 
to  give  years  to  unremitting  Christian  service  for  the 
reward  of  such  affectionate  gratitude  as  this. 

No  work  on  earth  is  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  the 
Master,  so  rich  in  its  compensations,  so  productive 
of  spiritual  fruitage  in  the  life  of  the  worker.  Face 
to  face  with  souls  he  catches  his  best  visions  of 
God;  fathoms  the  laws,  processes  and  mysteries  of 
the  human  spirit ;  discovers  the  secret  of  revealed 
truth;  and  becomes  immovably  confident  of  the 
eternal  verities  of  the  Gospel,  made  known  in  him 
and  through  him  who  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light,  and  who  saici :  "  He  that  hath  seen  me,  hath 
seen  the  Father." 


XIX 

CONCLUSIONS 

THESE  narratives  of  work  with  individuals 
could  be  indefinitely  extended.  Nothing 
remains  longer  or  more  vividly  in  mind 
than  the  conversations  held  with  persons  whom  one 
has  sought  to  win  to  a  vital  Christian  life.  The  mind 
is  compelled  to  be  so  alert,  the  heart  so  full  of  the 
passion  of  the  Master,  the  spirit  so  under  the  guid- 
ance of  the  Divine  Word,  that  these  personal  inter- 
views with  souls  become  a  permanent  part  of  one's 
conscious  life. 

I 

One  impression  that  abides  after  years  of  the 
closest  work  of  this  kind  is  the  need  of  a  divinely 
courageous  thoroughness  in  dealing  with  soids.  All 
souls  are  alike  as  regards  the  universal  problem  of 
surrendering  the  Hfe  to  God.  There  may  be  degrees 
of  conflict,  struggle  and  resistance,  but  the  process 
and  problem  in  each  case  is  the  same,  viz.:  that  of 
the  yielding  and  obedience  of  the  will  to  the  sover- 
eignty of  God.  Jesus  Christ  must  be  accepted  as 
Lord  and  Master,  if  he  is  to  be  received  as  Saviour, 
otherwise  conversion  is  superficial,  and  the  Christian 
hope  grounded  in  self-deception  and  error. 

This  revolutionary  work  is  fundamental  to  Chris- 
106 


CONCLUSIONS  107 

tian  character,  and  to  spiritual  intelligence  and 
growth.  This  is  what  Jesus  meant  by  being  born 
from  above.  The  Holy  Spirit  accomplishes  his  re- 
newing work  when  the  will  of  man  voluntarily  yields 
to  the  will  of  God.  Jesus  himself  is  the  model  here. 
He  said  it  was  **  his  meat  and  drink  to  do  the  will 
of  his  Father."  He  lived  and  moved  and  had  his 
being  in  the  will  of  God.  It  was  his  supreme  aim 
and  delight  to  "  always  do  those  things  that  are 
pleasing  in  his  sight." 

To  enter  the  Christian  life  understanding  this,  and 
unreservedly  accepting  it,  guarantees  thorough  con- 
version and  a  life  of  subsequent  growth,  satisfaction 
and  joy. 

II 

Oft-repeated  and  long-continued  personal  work 
with  people  in  adult  life  creates  the  assured  and  pro- 
found conviction  that  early  childhood  is  God's  or- 
dained time  for  conversion  and  spiritual  renewal. 

In  infancy  and  before  the  period  of  mature  and 
intelligent  volition  the  will  is  the  willing  servant  of 
the  affections.  It  chooses  gladly  what  the  heart 
loves.  This  is  true  of  all  undeveloped  and  undisci- 
plined persons  whether  child  or  adult.  The  will  has 
not  taken  its  rightful  place  of  sovereignty  on  the 
throne  of  one's  being.  If  the  heart  always  loved 
what  is  right  and  good,  the  will  would  have  an  easy 
task,  and  could  follow  the  leadership  of  the  affec- 
tions without  risk  to  character.  All  of  life's  moral 
disasters  come  from  unregulated  affections  to  which 
the  undisciplined  will  becomes  subservient. 


108    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

In  childhood  the  task  of  guiding  the  heart  to  the 
love  of  the  beautiful,  the  true  and  the  good,  is  easy. 
Children  prefer  the  good  to  the  bad,  that  which  is 
lovely  to  that  which  is  ugly,  for  "  of  such  is  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."  If  they  are  taught  early  to  love 
the  good  and  the  right,  the  will,  under  the  sway  of 
the  pure  affection,  comes  automatically  and  uncon- 
sciously into  glad  harmony  with  the  good.  If  Christ 
is  loved  the  will  responds  to  his  goodness  and  sover- 
eignty, just  as  a  loving  and  trustful  child  delights 
to  do  the  will  of  a  wise  and  loving  parent.  This  is 
the  work  which  in  the  adult  is  termed  conversion. 
It  is  exactly  the  same  fundamental  process  of  yield- 
ing the  will  to  God  which  in  the  grown  person  is  at- 
tended with  so  much  conflict  and  struggle.  In  the 
child  the  work  is  far  more  thorough  and  complete 
because  it  has  been  accomplished  without  reserva- 
tion, distrust  and  antagonism.  The  love  of  a  little 
child  knows  no  hesitancy,  fear  or  resistance.  The 
whole  being  responds  to  the  goodness  and  will  of 
God,  for  the  infant  heart  has  never  been  vitiated  by 
suspecting  any  difference  between  his  goodness  and 
his  will.  We  enter  the  realm  of  life's  perversion  and 
falseness  when  we  fear  that  his  will  is  not  good,  and 
are  thus  despoiled,  by  doubt  and  distrust,  of  the  very 
qualities  which  Jesus  said  characterized  the  little 
child  as  belonging  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

The  problem,  then,  of  religious  education  is  to 
teach  the  little  child  to  love  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
beautiful,  the  true  and  the  good,  as  they  are  revealed 
in  him.  When  the  boy  and  girl  of  ten  or  twelve, 
after  a  decade  of  such  intelligent,  spiritual  instruc- 


f  CONCLUSIONS  109" 

tion,  begin  to  come  to  self-discovery  and  self-inter- 
pretation they  find  that  their  wills  are  set  on  the  side 
of  Christian  character  and  ideals.  They  instinctively 
resent  evil  and  fear  it  because  the  fundamental 
energy  of  their  moral  being, — the  will, — is  positively 
on  the  side  of  God  and  the  right.  Through  an  en- 
tire decade  it  has  been  the  willing  servant  and  part- 
ner of  a  loving  heart,  of  a  pure  and  heaven-inspired 
affection,  and  its  moral  bent  is  toward  the  worthiest 
object  of  affection  and  desire. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  tell,  in  this  beautiful 
process  of  development,  when  the  renewing  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  accomplished.  There  are  instances 
in  which  the  spiritual  heritage  is  so  vital  and  strong 
as  to  warrant  the  belief  that  the  second  birth,  the 
"  new  birth,"  is  synchronous  with  the  first,  the  spir- 
itual with  the  physical.  God's  covenant  promise  in- 
cludes such  a  spiritual  possibility. 

The  modern  psychologist  who  would  postpone 
conversion  until  the  period  of  adolescence,  and  prac- 
tically identify  it  with  the  changes  wrought  by 
nature  in  the  physical  system  at  this  crucial  era,  is 
nothing  less  than  a  pure  theorist.  He  is  entirely 
outside  the  realm  of  practical  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence. He  is  innocent  of  the  certified  conclusions  of 
those  who  have  gained  their  knowledge  in  the  clinic 
of  personal  work  with  youthful  souls. 

The  storm  and  stress  of  the  adolescent  period  do, 
indeed,  deeply  affect  the  religious  nature  and  render 
the  battle  of  the  soul  described  in  an  earlier  chapter 
strenuously  intense.  This  period  of  physical  and 
emotional  change  awakens  the  consciousness  of  per- 


110    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

sonal  independence  and  individuality.  It  is  the  time 
when  mind,  heart  and  will  begin  to  resent  interfer- 
ence and  outside  control.  The  young  person  takes 
the  reins  of  control  into  his  own  hands,  becomes  a 
law  unto  himself,  rebels  against  authority,  pulls 
away  from  restraint  and  guidance,  and  battles  with 
conscience  and  the  call  of  God.  Under  sympathetic 
and  helpful  leadership  many  a  boy  and  girl  win  the 
good  fight  in  this  era  of  moral  conflict,  but  their  con- 
version is  anything  but  a  natural  evolution.  They 
are  victorious  only  as  the  moral  will  makes  an  intelli- 
gent and  definite  issue  between  right  and  wrong,  be- 
tween God  and  self. 

Instead  of  being  the  normal  time  of  conversion 
it  is  by  the  very  nature  of  the  case  one  of  the  most 
difficult  times.  The  work  of  religious  education  and 
moral  choice  should  have  been  accomplished  before 
this  period  of  change.  Early  conversion  prepares 
one  for  this  era  of  stress  and  safeguards  him  while 
passing  through  it.  It  makes  the  battle  less  intense 
and  more  certain  of  a  favourable  issue.  It  tides  one 
over  and  carries  him  through  the  most  critical  period 
in  life  by  the  power  of  a  love  already  centered  upon 
the  good,  and  allegiant  to  Jesus  Christ.  No  risk  is 
greater  than  that  of  deferring  the  soul's  absolute 
commitment  to  God  until  the  age  of  adolescence. 
The  entire  moral  and  spiritual  being  should  be  cen- 
tered in  Christ  long  before  this  era.  Any  pastor 
who  has  done  thorough  and  intelligent  work  knows 
that  the  average  child  of  seven  can  understand  and 
definitely  appropriate  the  gracious  and  saving  love 
of  God  at  that  early  age.    There  is  sometimes  a  very 


CONCLUSIONS  111 

beautiful  and  surprising  spiritual  maturity  in  little 
children.  Religion  is  as  suited  to  the  early  youthful 
mind  and  heart  as  sunshine  to  flowers,  as  music  to 
birds,  as  beauty  to  the  eye.  Purity  and  love  are  the 
element  in  which  they  were  born  to  live  and  move 
and  have  their  being.  The  Catholic  church  is  far 
more  discerning  of  this  possibility  of  the  child's  spir- 
itual nature  than  the  average  Protestant  church.  Its 
entire  method  of  instruction  and  discipline  is  con- 
ducted on  the  principle  that  the  whole  bent  of  the  mind 
and  soul  should  be  definitely  and  permanently  fixed 
before  the  adolescent  age.  Its  hold  on  its  adherents, 
be  it  good  or  bad,  is  due  to  this  intelligent  philosophy 
of  the  spiritual  possibilities  of  the  child. 

Some  of  the  most  beautiful,  satisfactory  and  in- 
telligent conversions  the  writer  has  ever  known  have 
taken  place  in  children  of  seven  years  of  age.  And 
the  work  of  grace  wrought  then  is  always  deeper, 
more  stable,  more  enduring  than  that  wrought  in 
adult  life.  It  gets  possession,  then,  of  the  entire 
heart  and  moral  being.  The  attempt  to  convert  adult 
people  whose  religious  nurture  was  neglected  in 
childhood  is  not  only  a  difficult  task,  but  one  that  is 
performed  at  the  cost  of  an  enormous  expenditure, 
not  to  say  waste,  of  energy.  It  means  the  overcom- 
ing of  a  will  long  set  in  the  wrong  direction,  the  mas- 
tery of  long  established  habits,  the  reversal  of  the 
very  currents  of  one's  being, — thought,  belief,  affec- 
tion, desire,  purpose.  This  can,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
be  permanently  achieved  in  multitudes  of  people. 
The  Holy  Spirit  can  work  this  miracle  of  spiritual 
renewal  in  any  heart,  at  any  period  in  life,  when  the 


112    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

will  of  man  becomes  responsive  and  obedient  to  the 
will  of  God.  But  what  a  saving  of  conflict  and  effort 
to  believe  that  God*s  time  for  this  gracious  and  glori- 
ous work  is  in  infancy  and  early  childhood. 

The  writer  has  received  a  goodly  number  of  chil- 
dren into  the  church  at  the  early  age  of  seven. 
Their  religious  experience  was  in  some  instances  as 
definite  and  remarkable  as  an  adult  conversion.  At 
the  close  of  a  mid-week  prayer  meeting  a  child  of 
seven  came  to  her  pastor  with  her  mother  and  said: 
"  I  would  like  to  unite  with  the  church  at  the 
next  communion."  "You  do,  my  dear.  Why?" 
She  answered,  "You  know  that  I  have  been  very 
sick.  One  day  I  heard  father  and  mother  praying 
that  God  would  spare  my  life,  and  that  I  might  get 
well.  I  knew  that  I  must  be  very  sick,  and  I  prom- 
ised Jesus  that  if  he  would  spare  my  life  I  would 
love  him  with  all  my  heart  and  live  for  him,  and 
unite  with  the  church;  and  now  I  want  to  keep  my 
promise."  The  dear  child  had  wrought  the  problem 
out  by  herself.  It  was  a  very  deep  and  beautiful 
work  of  grace.  Her  parents  had  not  directed  her 
at  all  in  the  matter.  She  united  with  the  church  at 
the  appointed  time.  Her  Christian  life  to  full-grown 
womanhood  and  to  motherhood  has  been  one  of  the 
most  serene,  strong,  victorious  and  steadily  beautiful 
lives  her  pastor  has  ever  known. 

Other  children  of  seven  have  come  to  him  with  the 
same  request,  asking  the  privilege  of  confessing 
Christ  as  their  Saviour  in  public.  In  each  case  the 
child  had  had,  even  at  that  early  age,  some  spiritual 
conflict  or  crisis,  or  some  marked  and  blessed  experi- 


CONCLUSIONS  113 

ence  of  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  ca- 
pacity of  a  child  of  seven  to  know  God,  and  the 
maturity  of  its  spiritual  experience  are  rarely  dis- 
cerned, understood,  appreciated.  The  doubting  of 
this  early  capacity  is  one  of  the  severest  reflections 
on  the  spiritual  intelligence  of  adults,  and  one  of  the 
chief  sins  of  religious  teachers  against  the  plan  and 
will  of  God,  as  well  as  against  the  spiritual  nature 
of  childhood. 

Ill 

Personal  evangelism  reveals  the  divine  insight  and 
power  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  necessity  of  its 
constant  and  familiar  use  in  the  work  of  winning 
souls  to  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the  text-book  of  the  spir- 
itual life.  It  is  scientific  in  its  method  and  in  the 
subtle  accuracy  of  its  knowledge.  It  is  the  only  book 
in  the  world  that  makes  known  "  the  law  of  the  spirit 
of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  "  by  which  men  are  "  set  free 
from  the  law  of  sin  and  death."  What  Jesus  is  in 
his  moral  perfection  and  ideals  to  the  moral  life  of 
mankind,  his  recorded  words  and  the  writings  of 
Paul  and  John  are  to  the  knowledge  of  the  human 
soul.  No  other  writings  can  be  made  a  substitute 
in  guiding  men  into  the  light.  Back  of  all  experience 
and  personal  testimony  must  be  the  corrective  and 
authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Their  searching 
tests  are  never  to  be  modified  or  displaced.  The 
Bible  is  veritably  the  Book  of  Life.  It  is  the  instru- 
ment of  the  Spirit  in  conviction  and  conversion.  It 
is  a  lamp,  a  light,  a  sword,  a  hammer  breaking  the 
flinty  rock  in  pieces,  an  interpreter  of  the  inner  life. 


114    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

a  quickener  of  the  mind,  a  regenerator  of  the  soul 
through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Through  its 
power  the  personal  evangelist  is  able  to  convict  men 
of  sin  and  show  them  the  pathway  to  life.  Without 
it  argument  and  appeal  are  practically  useless.  Its 
working  passages  should  be  at  the  tongue's  end  and 
finger-tips  of  every  would-be  winner  of  souls. 

As  a  text-book  in  psychology  it  surpasses  all  the 
discoveries,  skill,  science  and  philosophies  of  the 
world's  most  eminent  specialists.  It  never  theorizes, 
it  proclaims.  It  never  guesses,  but  speaks  with  the 
authority  of  known  truth.  It  makes  man  acquainted 
with  himself  because  it  makes  him  acquainted  with 
God.  As  regards  the  fundamental  qualities  of  his 
moral  and  spiritual  being,  self-knowledge  is  impos- 
sible without  this  higher  vision.  Without  an  experi- 
mental knowledge  of  the  Word  of  God  the  personal 
worker  can  neither  know  himself  nor  his  fellow- 
men.  In  all  winsome  and  effective  ministry  this 
must  be  his  constant  companion  and  guide. 

IV 

Instruction  in  personal  evangelism  should  be  a  part 
of  the  curriculum  of  every  church  and  of  every 
theological  seminary. 

Back  of  it,  as  its  prime  essential,  should  be  such 
a  vital  belief  in  the  gospel,  and  such  a  spiritual  vital- 
ity as  to  create,  in  its  membership,  Christ's  passion 
for  souls.  But  inspiration  must  be  followed  by  spe- 
cific instruction;  quickening  of  mind,  heart  and 
spirit,  by  commitment  to  definite  personal  work. 

Every  Sunday  School  teacher  should  be  a  winner 


CONCLUSIONS  115 

t 

of  souls,  a  skilled  evangelist.  His  work  fails  utterly 
of  accomplishing  its  purpose  unless  it  issues  in  the 
conversion  of  the  young  people  committed  to  his 
care.  All  the  officers  of  a  church  should  be  capable 
of  being  entrusted  with  the  delicate  task  of  leading 
an  inquiring  soul  into  the  light.  They  should  be 
made  to  feel  that  official  spiritual  leadership  is  in- 
consistent without  qualification  for  this  supreme 
work.  To  this  end  their  office  was  created.  For  this 
purpose  the  church  itself,  in  all  its  administrative 
functions,  exists.  A  church  that  does  not  make  all 
its  executive  and  spiritual  work  focus  on  the  salva- 
tion of  all  the  individuals  to  whom  it  ministers  is  not 
fulfilling  its  God-given  mission. 

The  ministry  itself  should  be  qualified  to  educate 
and  organize  the  church  for  this  supreme  task  of 
winning  men  to  Christ.  If  our  theological  semi- 
naries cannot  have  the  equivalent  of  a  clinic  in  this 
department  of  instruction,  they  should  be  religiously 
vital  enough  to  impress  and  convince  every  candidate 
for  the  pastorate,  that  his  first  duty  is  to  be  qualified 
to  lead  men  to  God,  and  to  make  his  church  a  con- 
verting and  redeeming  agency  in  the  community. 
Because  this  fundamental  aim  of  the  church  is  not 
ceaselessly  kept  at  the  front  in  all  departments  of 
theological  instruction,  many  men  consecrated  to  the 
ministry  spend  their  lives  in  conducting  services  and 
in  running  the  machinery  of  an  organization.  Dr. 
G.  Campbell  Morgan  is  right  in  saying  that  a  so- 
ciety, department  or  organization  of  any  kind  in  the 
church  has  no  right  to  exist  except  its  specific  and 
fundamental  aim  is  to  assist  in  the  process  of  win- 


116    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

ning  men  vitally  to  Jesus  Christ.  Its  social  work 
should  all  be  a  means  to  this  end.  Its  amusements, 
as  truly  as  its  preaching  and  devotional  services, 
should  be  planned  and  conducted  with  this  ultimate 
end  in  view.  Secular  entertainment  in  the  church 
gradually  undermines  its  spiritual  influence  and  robs 
it  of  its  spiritual  motive  and  power.  In  meeting  the 
social  needs  of  people  and  their  desire  for  recreation 
and  a  good  time,  the  church  must  ever  keep  vividly 
in  mind  the  end  in  view,  viz.:  the  salvation  of  the 
soul,  and  its  effort  to  be  attractive  and  winsome  must 
be  lifted  to  this  lofty  point  of  vision  and  purpose. 

"  It  took  me  six  months  to  get  spiritually  warmed 
up  after  leaving  the  theological  seminary,"  said  a 
gifted  young  minister.  He  affirmed  that  the  em- 
phasis on  intellectual  work  was  so  exclusive,  and  the 
treatment  of  the  Bible  and  religion  so  cold,  philo- 
sophic and  rationalistic  that  he  found  himself  with- 
out a  message  for  his  people  and  unable  to  minister 
to  their  spiritual  needs.  He  said  that  the  first  half- 
year  in  his  work  as  pastor  and  preacher  was  a  most 
painful  experience,  for  he  was  compelled  to  readjust 
most  of  his  thinking,  and  warm  up  a  heart  that  had 
become  scholastic,  perfunctory,  and  passionless.  That 
this  is  too  common  an  experience  is  a  severe  reflec- 
tion on  the  quality  of  spiritual  work  done,  and  the 
religious  aim  generated  in  some  of  our  theological 
seminaries. 

While  this  was  not  the  writer's  experience  he, 
nevertheless,  cannot  credit  the  seminary  with  any- 
thing that  approximated  specific  instruction  in  the  art 
of    personal    evangelism,    or    oft-repeated    emphasis 


CONCLUSIONS  117 

upon  the  fact  that  it  is  the  minister's  first  task  to 
make  himself  a  winner  of  souls,  that  every  sermon, 
every  department  of  work,  every  society  and  organ- 
ization in  the  church  should  have  this  as  its  initial 
and  ultimate  aim. 

Religious  experience  is  not  an  emotional  and  senti- 
mental thing,  but  the  most  intelligent,  deliberate,  ra- 
tional factor  in  life.  It  is  the  discovery  and  appro- 
priation of  life  according  to  God's  ideal  and  plan. 
The  passion  of  the  great  apostle  who  said,  "  Breth- 
ren, I  beseech  you,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  to  present 
your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  to 
God,  which  is  your  reasonable, — rational,  spiritual, — 
service,"  illustrates  .the  motive  that  should  give  in- 
spiration to  every  theological  teacher,  every  minister, 
every  church,  every  official  and  member  in  the 
church.  In  other  words,  there  must  be  a  revival  of 
the  spiritual  passion  of  the  early  Christian,  through- 
out the  rank  and  file  of  the  church  to-day,  if  the 
church  is  to  make  itself  the  leading  and  the  con- 
structive power  in  the  life  of  our  age.  It  will  be 
swamped,  amid  the  seething  currents  of  our  indus- 
trial, commercial,  political,  and  grossly  worldly  social 
life  unless  it  has  this  all-conquering  passion. 

The  church  must  put  new  emphasis  on  its  evan- 
gelistic mission.  It  must  recover  its  effectiveness  in 
winning  souls.  It  must  train  its  officials  and  teach- 
ers, and  inspire  its  new  converts  to  this  end.  It  will 
then  find  itself  coming  back  to  a  normal,  sane,  vital, 
joyous,  winsome,  convincing,  victorious  spiritual  life. 

That  this  new  day  is  dawning  is  the  confident 
belief  of  many  of  the  spiritual  leaders  of  our  time. 


XX 

A  FINAL  WORD  OF  TESTIMONY 

ONE  who  has  watched  the  course  of  human 
events  and  the  transmutations  of  thought 
during  an  active  ministry  of  forty  and  two 
years  would  have  a  dull  heart  and  a  barren  experi- 
ence had  he  no  convictions  to  record  and  no  testi- 
mony to  give  after  such  a  period  of  observation  and 
discovery.  Among  the  indelible  impressions  made 
by  these  more  than  two  score  years,  are : 

I 

The  change ahleness  and  unreliability  of  human 
thought.  The  rapidity  with  which  new  theories, 
isms,  doctrinal  fads,  and  scientific  pronouncements, 
succeed  and  displace  each  other,  is  a  startling  evi- 
dence of  this  fact. 

Christianity  would  be  in  a  sad  plight  if  its  adher- 
ents must  needs  be  thrown  into  perturbations  by 
every  wind  of  doctrine,  scientific  or  religious,  that 
sweeps  across  its  horizon.  Unless  it  is  grounded  in 
elemental  truth,  and  in  laws,  principles,  processes 
and  experience  that  are  the  same  from  age  to  age, 
then  its  house  is  built  on  shifting  sand.  If  the  an- 
cient psalmist,  with  great  calmness  of  faith,  could 
say,  "  Be  still,  and  know  that  I  am  God,"  much  more 
can  the  Christian  believer  of  to-day.  If  Paul,  in  the 
118 


A  FINAL  WORD  OF  TESTIMONY        119 

maelstrom  of  seething  conflict  and  persecution  could 
with  quietness  and  serenity  affirm,  "  I  know  him 
whom  I  have  believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  he  is 
able  to  guard  that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him 
against  that  day,"  surely  the  faith  of  this  later  :\gQ 
should  be  even  more  peaceful  and  assured.  "  The 
peace  which  passeth  all  understanding  "  is  no  myth 
of  an  outgrown  sentimentalism,  but  the  permanent 
heritage  of  those  who  have  experienced  "  the  power 
of  an  endless  Hfe."  He  who  is  hesitating,  timid  or 
apologetic  in  his  attitude  to  or  in  his  proclamation 
of  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus, 
has  not  gone  deeply  enough  in  his  religious  experi- 
ence to  apprehend  the  verities  of  his  own  faith,  or 
the  eternal  vitalities  of  the  Christian  religion.  A 
new  note  of  confidence  throughout  the  Church  and 
the  pulpit  of  to-day  would  be  like  ozone  to  gasping 
lungs,  or  like  tonic  to  an  enfeebled  heart. 

(i)  During  the  first  decade  of  the  period  under 
consideration  the  Christian  world  was  thrown  into 
violent  discussion  and  controversy  by  the  theory  of 
a  Second  Probation  for  the  unsaved,  after  death. 
Born  of  the  personal  incompatibilities,  not  to  say 
antagonisms,  of  two  eminent  professors  in  one  theo- 
logical seminary,  the  conflict  of  feeling  soon  preoc- 
cupied the  pulpit  and  press  of  Protestantism,  and  at 
last  converted  the  platform  of  the  oldest  Foreign 
Missionary  Board  in  the  country  into  a  battle-ground 
of  contending  opinions,  on  which  the  giants  of  the 
denomination  matched  each  other  with  impassioned 
eloquence  and  masterful  debate.  It  was  a  brilliant, 
heated  controversy  which  stirred  men's  souls  to  their 


120    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

profoundest  depths.  The  most  eminent,  historic, 
Puritan  church  in  New  England  threw  down  the 
gauntlet  to  the  American  Board  by  refusing  to  con- 
tinue its  munificent  contributions  to  missions  unless 
a  certain  young  advocate  of  Second  Probation  was 
commissioned  to  the  foreign  field.  Against  the  best 
wisdom  and  conservative  judgment  of  the  Board,  for 
the  sake  of  peace,  this  concession  was  made.  Time 
soon  passed  verdict  on  this  action.  The  young  mis- 
sionary, finding  himself  without  an  adequate  evangel 
and  unfitted  for  his  uncongenial  task,  early  sought 
refuge  in  another  vocation.  The  universal  silence 
that  followed  his  resignation  was  more  eloquent  than 
speech.  In  a  decade  the  contention  that  had  filled  a 
hemisphere  with  its  logomachies  and  had  grieved  the 
Church  with  its  needless  and  useless  strife,  suddenly 
dropped  out  of  public  interest  and  discussion.  The 
issue  has  never  been  revived. 

(2)  Speedily  another  tidal  wave  of  controversy 
swept  over  the  entire  Christian  world,  as  the  result 
of  the  new  views  of  the  Bible  presented  by  the  often 
misunderstood  science  of  "  Higher  Criticism."  The 
negative  and  "  destructive  "  nature  of  some  of  its 
conclusions  did,  indeed,  threaten  the  authority  and 
integrity  of  the  Bible.  In  their  extreme  form  they 
found  expression  in  the  kaleidoscopic  colours  of  the 
Polychrome  Bible.  The  minute  and  fanciful  analysis 
which  assigned  the  Biblical  text,  by  sheer  guess- 
work, to  an  indefinite  number  of  imaginary  authors, 
caused  the  eminent  professor,  George  Park  Fisher, 
to  judicially  affirm :  "  These  colours  will  fade." 
They   faded  before  the  general  public  had   oppor- 


A  FINAL  WORD  OF  TESTIMONY       121 

tunity  even  to  see  them.  Another  keen  valuation  of 
this  extravagant  type  of  literary  conjecture  is  given 
in  the  following  quotation  from  the  writings  of 
Dr.  George  A.  Gordon,  one  of  the  profoundest 
philosophers  and  metaphysicians  and  one  of  the  most 
liberal  preachers  of  this  generation :  "  A  work  of 
pure  skepticism,  directed  against  historical  criticism, 
would  greatly  clear  up  a  confused,  an  almost  intoler- 
able situation.  Analysis  and  elimination,  on  the  basis 
of  arbitrary  like  and  dislike,  have  done  their  work; 
the  theory  that,  in  order  to  get  the  historical  situa- 
tion represented  by  an  ancient  literary  production,  it 
is  necessary  first  to  tear  it  to  tatters,  is  beginning  to 
lose  interest  for  sensible  men.  *  *  *  it  would 
seem  that  one  is  hardly  justified  thus  to  reduce 
author  or  editor  or  both  to  lunacy  or  want  of  con- 
science, in  order  to  buttress  a  theory.  General  cleav- 
ages are  evident,  grand  outlines  obviously  declare 
their  difference;  it  is  another  matter  to  reduce  criti- 
cism of  ancient  documents  to  the  play  of  a  puppy 
with  a  rag." 

Time  has  drawn  a  clear  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween the  constructive  and  destructive  elements  in 
modern  Biblical  studies,  and  the  Church  is  no  longer 
solicitous  as  to  the  security  and  trustworthiness  of 
the  inspired  Word. 

(3)  The  Theory  of  Evolution,  in  its  turn,  com- 
manded the  center  of  human  thought,  with  its  amaz- 
ing reversals  of  human  opinion  as  to  the  age  of  the 
world  and  the  method  of  its  creation.  The  Chris- 
tian world  soon  came  to  realize  that  a  difference  in 
method  in  no  way  controverts  belief  in  the  neces- 


122    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

sity  of  an  infinite,  omnipresent  and  omnipotent 
Creator,  that  truth  in  one  realm  can  never  conflict 
with  truth  in  another  realm,  and  that  true  science 
and  true  religion  must  not  only  be  in  harmony  with 
each  other,  but  also  in  actual  partnership,  both  being 
expressions  of  the  same  infinite  Intelligence ,  and 
purpose. 

A  revival  of  the  outgrown  controversy  by  certain 
modern  literalists  is  a  unique  illustration  of  incon- 
sistency, inasmuch  as  the  Fundamentalists  refuse  to 
be  guided  and  assured  by  the  wisdom  and  sane  ad- 
vice of  Gamaliel,  who  prevented  the  belligerent  con- 
servers  of  orthodoxy  in  his  day  from  killing  the 
advocates  of  the  new  faith,  saying :  "  Refrain  from 
these  men,  and  let  them  alone:  for  if  this  counsel  or 
this  work  be  of  men,  it  will  be  overthrown:  but  if 
it  be  of  God,  ye  will  not  be  able  to  overthrow  them ; 
lest  haply  ye  be  found  even  to  be  fighting  against 
God." 

The  Church  in  its  sanest  leadership,  to-day,  is 
resting  in  the  calm  assurance  that  truth  is  ultimately 
its  own  vindicator,  and  that  error  or  false  doctrine 
cannot  long  contend  successfully  against  it. 

3.  Another  phase  of  the  world's  rapidly  changing 
thought  is  seen  in 

(4)  The  lamentable  and  ominous  estrangement, 
on  the  part  of  many  of  the  larger  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, from  the  Church,  and  even  from  vital 
Christianity.  There  are  splendid  exceptions  to  this 
rule.  Some  of  our  smaller  colleges  still  retain  their 
evangelical  spirit  and  purpose. 

As  indicated  in  the  preceding  paragraphs,  the  past 


A  FINAL  WORD  OF  TESTIMONY        123 

two  decades  and  more  have  been  a  period  of  scien- 
tific investigation  and  inquiry.  No  department  of 
the  universe  has  intentionally  been  left  unexplored. 
Nothing  has  been  taken  for  granted.  Ancient  sanc- 
tities have  been  ignored.  The  iconoclasm  of  cher- 
ished beliefs  has  been  ruthless.  The  quality  of  per- 
sonal religion  has  declined,  and  the  devotional  life, 
on  the  part  of  multitudes,  has  suffered  eclipse. 
Moreover,  speciahzation  in  departments  of  science 
has  dwarfed  technical  students  to  narrow  realms,  in- 
terest and  vision.  Human  values  have  been  lost  to 
view.  Character,  the  chief  end  of  education,  a  gen- 
eration ago,  has  ceased  to  be  an  object  of  concern 
on  the  part  of  the  average  college  instructor.  Facul- 
ties, once  constituted  of  devoutly  religious,  spirit- 
ually minded  men,  now  rarely  acknowledge  interest 
in  the  work  and  worship  of  the  Church.  The  ex- 
treme to  which  this  agnosticism  can  go  is  illustrated 
by  this  verbatim  quotation  from  the  recent  utterance 
of  the  head  of  a  department  in  one  of  our  largest 
state  universities :  "  To  me  the  world  seems  a  rotten 
apple,  covered  with  vermin,  swung  at  the  end  of  a 
string  by  an  idiot  boy,  by  the  light  of  a  guttering 
candle."  Such  is  the  creed  of  this  scientific  mate- 
rialist. If  this  is  all  that  scientific  scholarship  can 
give  the  world,  such  scholarship  is  not  worth  the 
having.  It  dwells  in  a  cave  of  its  own  making,  which 
shuts  out  the  blue  vault  of  heaven  and  the  radiance 
of  skies  luminous  with  sunlight  or  with  the  splen- 
dour of  constellations  that  open  to  undimmed  eyes  a 
universe  abounding  with  evidence  of  an  infinite,  al- 
mighty and  all-wise  Creator. 


124    MASTER^S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

The  picture  is  not  one  of  unrelieved  gloom.  The 
very  questionings  of  an  age,  if  sincere,  are  evidence 
that  the  human  mind  will  not  rest  satisfied  until  its 
problems  are  solved.  Moreover,  the  Church  may  be, 
in  part,  to  blame  for  the  negations  of  the  hour.  As 
soon  as  it  gives  proof  of  possessing  the  dynamic  of 
divine  power,  and  the  purpose  and  passion  of  an 
exhaustless  love,  its  testimony  will  be  irresistible  and 
skepticism  will  vanish  in  its  presence  as  the  mists  of 
morning  are  dissolved  by  the  warmth  and  glory  of 
the  rising  sun. 

II 

Another  verified  impression  of  the  passing  years 
is  the  incapacity  of  the  mind  to  apprehend  the  deeper 
truths  of  life  and  religion  apart  from  the  intuitions 
of  a  renewed  spirit.  The  indwelling  love  of  God  is 
the  light  of  all  our  seeing.  "  In  him  was  Hfe ;  and 
the  life  was  the  light  of  men." 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  any  man  can 
escape  becoming  a  rationalist,  in  view  of  life's  mys- 
teries and  of  the  limitations  of  human  knowledge, 
unless  he  has  had  some  evidence  of  supernatural 
power.  As  far  as  the  writer  is  concerned,  a  far- 
reaching  work  of  grace  that  visibly  and  permanently 
transformed  the  lives  of  nearly  two  hundred  people, 
in  his  early  ministry,  forever  banished  doubt  as  to 
the  verities  of  Pentecost  and  the  miracle  of  the  new 
birth.  That  work,  so  deep  and  abiding,  so  beneficent 
and  redemptive,  steadied  him  through  all  the  shift- 
ing phases  of  human  thought  in  after  years,  and  dis- 
pelled uncertainty  as  to  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  the  per- 


A  FINAL  WORD  OF  TESTIMONY        125 

sonality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  need  of  spiritual 
renewal  on  the  part  of  all  mankind.  Without  such 
showers  from  on  high  and  such  confirmations  in 
one's  innermost  life,  the  fountains  of  the  deep  dry 
up  in  the  human  soul,  and  the  intellect  becomes 
agnostic  as  to  the  deeper  verities  of  truth  and  Hfe. 

Books  are  essential  to  the  nourishment  of  the 
mind,  but  books  alone  leave  the  intellect  high  up  on 
the  sands  and  rocks  of  a  surfless  shore.  Only  as 
one  launches  out  into  the  deep,  and  lets  down  the 
net,  and  draws  it  in  laden  with  fish,  has  he  the  proof 
that  every  spiritual  being  needs  of  God's  presence 
and  renewing  power.  The  sight  of  one  life  gen- 
uinely saved  has  more  confirming  effect  on  one's  con- 
victions and  faith  than  all  the  intellectual  gropings 
of  a  lifetime.  The  supreme  need  of  the  Church  and 
of  its  ministry  to-day  is  the  confirming  evidence  of 
such  spiritual  renewals  of  its  own  life  and  of  the  life 
of  the  outside  world. 

Ill 

Such  are  the  conditions,  opportunities  and  prob- 
lems that  evermore  confront  the  Church.  Can  the 
Church  meet  and  vanquish  the  stupendous  obstacles 
that  challenge  its  power?  Can  it  win  the  agnostic 
scholarship  in  our  higher  institutions  of  learning  to 
faith  and  to  sympathetic  co-operation  with  its  God- 
given  task?  Can  it  purge  politics  of  corruption,  and 
industry  and  trade  of  unfraternal  strife?  Can  it  re- 
organize society  on  the  basis  of  brotherly  love,  and 
make  the  principles  and  spirit  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
operative  in  all  human  afifairs?    These  are  the  ques- 


126    MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

tions  that  underly  and  give  inspiration  to  all  intelli- 
gent and  effective  evangelism. 

For  the  Christian  there  is  but  one  answer  to  these 
inquiries.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day 
and  forever.  The  potentialities  of  the  Gospel  do  not 
vary  from  age  to  age.  The  evangel  that  made  the 
early  Christians  victorious  over  the  paganism  of  a 
benighted  and  hostile  empire  can,  from  the  stand- 
point of  its  present  prestige  and  renown,  work 
mightier  miracles  than  past  centuries  have  ever 
known.  The  marvel  of  Christianity  is  its  timeless- 
ness.  Its  truths  are  not  subject  to  the  moods  and 
tendencies  of  the  fleeting  generations.  They  do  not 
veer  with  every  shifting  wind  of  human  doctrine. 
He  alone,  of  all  men,  is  up-to-date  who  stands  side 
by  side  with  the  Master  at  the  van  of  human  prog- 
ress, thinking  his  thoughts  and  doing  his  work. 

The  Golden  Age  of  Christianity  lies  in  the  future, 
not  in  the  past.  Multiplying  signs  indicate  that  the 
Church  is  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  heroic  era,  sur- 
passing in  glory  and  achievement  the  brightest  era 
of  days  gone  by.  There  are  those,  in  increasing  num- 
bers, who  are  confidently  assured  of  this,  and  who 
are  preparing  themselves  in  mind  and  heart  for  their 
God-given  opportunity  and  task.  The  problem  of 
the  Church  is  to  equip  its  membership  for  the  new 
crusade.  If  the  forbidding,  agnostic,  immoral  eigh- 
teenth century  could  blossom  out  into  the  evangel- 
istic and  missionary  fervour  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, through  the  preaching  of  Wesley  and  his  godly 
confreres,  surely  this  era  of  calamity  and  war,  of 
materialism  and  gross  evil,  can  and  will  experience 


A  FINAL  WORD  OF  TESTIMONY        127 

a  similar  reaction,  revulsion  and  revival,  until  the 
very  forces  of  our  material  civilization  become  agen- 
cies of  spiritual  power  in  the  kingdom  of  the  living 
God. 

IV 

Finally,  the  most  assured,  invincible,  restful  con- 
viction that  has  resulted  from  a  life  study  of  spir- 
itual verities  in  self  and  in  others  is  that  the  Church 
must  return  to  its  original  evangel  of  salvation 
through  faith  in  the  mercy,  grace  and  forgiving  love 
of  a  Divine  Redeemer.  This  is  not  merely  a  question 
of  the  modern  interpretation  of  the  Person  of  Jesus, 
or  of  the  efficacy  of  the  atonement,  but  of  man's  per- 
manent and  inherently  right  relation  to  an  infinitely 
holy  God.  The  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith 
runs  far  back  of  any  conception  of  Christ's  person 
and  sacrificial  work.  Abraham  apprehended  it  when 
he  abandoned  all  claim  to  an  adequate,  self-acquired 
and  satisfying  righteousness  of  his  own.  His  justifi- 
cation was  the  result  of  a  faith  which  surrendered 
all  title  to  personal  merit,  and  which  was  "  reckoned 
to  him  for  righteousness,"  because  in  its  renounce- 
ment of  self-worthiness  and  in  its  utter  abandon- 
ment to  the  will  and  guidance  of  Jehovah,  it  poten- 
tially included  the  righteousness  which  God  required. 

The  spiritual  life  of  the  modern  Church  is  becom- 
ing too  shallow  to  apprehend  the  philosophy  of  the 
Gospel,  which  is  the  philosophy  of  redemption.  Uni- 
tarianism,  notwithstanding  its  intellectual  culture  and 
its  ethical  idealism,  stands  not  only  for  an  inadequate 
appreciation  of  Christ's  person  and  work,  but  also 


128   MASTER'S  METHOD  OF  WINNING  MEN 

for  a  superficial  spiritual  life.  "  No  man  can  say, 
Jesus  is  Lord,  but  in  the  Holy  Spirit."  The  secret 
of  an  effective  evangel  is  in  making  men  conscious 
of  their  spiritual  poverty  and  of  their  need  of  God's 
infinite  and  saving  grace.  Irrespective  of  Christ's 
presence  in  history  this  is  the  permanent  need  of  the 
v^orld.  Through  his  capacity  to  reveal  and  meet  this 
need,  Jesus  becomes  "  the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the 
Life  "  for  all  mankind.  From  Abraham  to  the  fifty- 
third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  from  Isaiah  to  Paul,  from 
Paul  to  Luther,  and  from  Luther  to  the  present  hour, 
the  gospel  that  has  had  a  revolutionary  effect  on 
human  character  and  life,  that  has  actually  redeemed 
men  from  the  love  and  power  of  sin,  has  been  the 
gospel  of  a  sacrificial  love  embodied  in  the  teachings 
of  Jesus,  and  defined  and  expressed  in  the  historic 
doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith.  To  surrender  this 
doctrine  is  to  abandon  Christianity  as  a  redemptive 
religion. 

Whenever  the  Church  has  allowed  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  speak  its  own  unqualified  message,  without 
apology  or  adulteration,  it  has  gripped  the  conscience 
and  regenerated  the  life  of  entire  generations.  Its 
unhesitating  proclamation  to-day  will  accomplish  the 
same  re-creative  work,  and  will  prove  the  Gospel,  as 
twenty  centuries  have  already  proved  it,  to  be  "  the 
power  of  God  to  every  one  that  believeth." 


Printed  in  United  States  of  America 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Libraries 


1    1012  01236  3596 


Date  Due 

N   2  8    '47 

^ '^  /  1   41 

5 

m  3r4e 

My  2  4-49 

fACULU 

nnl9tt 

^0  1^   ^ 

FE  9    ' 

AP7 

•59 

j-;n iu  . 

.v^' 

mmm 

SMfc 

*^\ 

-  'f.*.-j,c. 


